© T B Jackson
In the morn the sky was eerie
An orange glow, a hazy scene
And although my eyes were bleary
It was a sight I'd never seen
There were reports the bush was burning
To the north near Adelaide
And the wind was blowing stronger
Towards the south a path was laid
But they said it wouldn't reach us
Was too distant, so it seemed
But with the tinder-dry vast landscape
A dark day was soon conceived
The tension
built for hours on end
Just like the
rising of the heat
And the wind
whipped up a frenzy
Until with
destiny we'd meet
Then it happened
in an instant
With no warning,
no remorse
The beast it
rolled on through our town
With an
unencumbered course
And we sat like
pawns awaiting
Unprotected from
our fate
As Mother Nature
unleashed fury
Across our town,
across our state
As the beast
raged all around us
Like piercing
daggers through my mind
Came the visions
of destruction
And the death of
all mankind
The cars
resembled gloomy coffins
In wreck and
ruin our lives lay
The stench of
death hung all about
The hallowed
turf where we once played
But as fate
would often have it
We were spared
the reaper's grasp
And when the
fiery beast departed
Rejoiced the
hand that had been cast
But the memories
do still linger
In my mind
they'll always stay
Of how a town
cheated disaster
On that
catastrophic day
