The First Of March 09 Poem by Francis Duggan

There's scarce enough of grass here for to feed a hare
The paddocks for miles around are dry, brown and bare
The farm water dams almost empty the creek beds bone dry
And not a rain cloud in the blue sunny sky
Not a dropp of water in the roadside drain
And the farmers have grown tired of praying for rain
The cattle for weeks have been living on hay
The rain that is badly needed not coming this way
The first day of March and the first day of the Southern Fall
And the longest drought that the old man can recall
For eighty two years he has lived around here
He says Climate Change on the landscape severe
The sheep from the sun shelter by the gum trees
And butterflies flit in the warm morning breeze.