Drought's End Poem by Frank Halliwell

Past the endless chain of beaches,
Past the surf and golden sand.
In the outback of Australia;
...In the Never-never land.

Far away from bustling cities
And the fertile coastal plain,
Live a mob of aussie children
That have never seen it rain!

'Oh, please, mother, tell me once more,
How I'll see, before I die,
The wonder of the falling rain;
..The water from the sky.

And tell me how the land will bloom
And how the drought will pass,
And how our stock will prosper
In the fields of waving grass.

And how our weak and scrawny sheep
Will fatten up again,
And feed will be abundant
After seven years of pain.

Mother, see the dark clouds rising!
Look! They're climbing way up high.
See the lightning that is flashing
All across the western sky!

Now I feel a cool wind rising.
And I see the falling rain.
Watch it making little rivers
All across the window pane.

Mother, mother can you see it,
Falling from the clouds above?
Falling on this savaged, ravaged land
This starved brown land we love!

Listen mother! Can you hear it?
Can you hear the joyous sound
Of it rushing through the gutters
As the rain is pelting down?

But the wind is howling louder
And the storm is more intense.
Can you hear the windows rattling
At nature's violence?

Mother, mother, can you hear it,
Can you hear that awful roar
Coming from the old dry creek bed
I've not heard that sound before!

Hear the noise! It's getting closer,
So much louder than before,
There's a swirling, muddy river
Just outside the kitchen door!

Can you feel the whole house shaking..
Can you hear the timbers groan?
Mother, look! The house is moving..
..Being carried on the foam! '

MOTHER...!