Best Billabong Poems
There’s an old river course with beginning and end,
now the river runs straight without this river bend,
where the water is still and the reeds do grow strong.
New life has taken over in a billabong.
The mat rush is spreading replacing the sedge,
and old fallen gum trees lean in from the edge
creating a haven in the shelter below
for smelt or gudgeon, and the common minnow.
There’s a ring on the water, so danger is nigh,
and life is now over for one caddis fly.
Dragonflies hover on their predator flight,
so mosquito and midges best keep out of sight.
There is many a song around a billabong
to break up the still with an assembly throng
from birds of the forest, and wading birds too,
so the billabong offer is there to pursue...
... for blue heron and egret, coot and the teal,
and for the banded rail that the bulrush conceal.
In the billabong shadowed by gum and ti-tree,
bellbirds are tinkling; wattlebirds disagree.
An oft-diving grebe keeps on searching for food
for the striped downy chicks of its latest brood,
and a hunting kingfisher waits keen for its prey
from a twig of a gum tree it frequents all day.
There is many a scent around a billabong,
filling the air with the perfume quite strong,
from black wattle and mint bush, or mistletoe
cascading from gum trees where only they grow.
Painted lady butterfly flit upon flowers,
and blue banded bees keep on working for hours
on lilies and orchids, heath, sweet appleberry
and clusters of flowers on a native cherry.
Ribbon weed, nardoo spread out in the shallow,
with buttercup, duckweed; an introduced mallow,
struggling for survival near the water line,
aiding coral pea that does lightly entwine.
The banks of a billabong are dangerous too
with predator snakes not so often in view,
but they are aware, that the growling grass frog
will climb from the water onto an old log.
But tigers and copperhead, red-bellied black
often lay in the sun on an overgrown track,
where the wombat or wallaby travel along
to graze on native grasses near the billabong.
So life still carries on around the billabong
where water looks stagnant, a bond is still strong
with a river now rushing it’s way to the sea,
past the billabong living, where the course used to be.
They were gathered round the billabong
to try to work things out
but all that was being emitted was
a right Caxton of sounds
All were jabber, jabber
and some pushing going on
jostling each other for space
none wanting to be left out
At last the wallaby said
whoa, stop I say STOP
and quiet finally fell
Lets give the chair to cockatoo
He can perch up high
from where he can
keep things moving
so watch for his signal
Cockatoo opened the meeting
and first called on Dingo
you get everywhere Dingo
what have you heard?
Dingo says I heard the humans
they are going to cut down
the blue ridge forest
and build many houses there
That can not happen
it is our home
we will have to work together
if we band we can delay their work
So the animals agreed on a plan
the big animals would sit in the roads
slowing the trucks down
While the monkeys would hide their tools
Snakes would wrap their bodies
around the marked trees
while the birds and parrots
the workers they would bomb
All this drove the foreman to despair
the work fell further and further behind
We could build netted fences
but that only stops the large animals
The Wet will be on us
in less than a month
if the land is still un-cleared
all work will come to a stop
I think we need to reconsider
and turn the Blue Ridge mountains
into a reserve for them all
there are plenty of other places
Where we can build
that do not have many animals
lets leave them the ridges
then we and our children
Will have a sanctuary
to come and watch these fighters
they have shown us the errors
not all land should be built on
At the next meeting
Dingo told them you are safe
your homes will be left untouched
all we all have to do is show our faces
Pose for the odd photo
amuse with a few tricks
and in return
we can live in peace
Lifted by the sweet sound of birdsong,
wild surfer on double overhead waves;
I feel all that Sex wax and Billabong.
A transparent parrot makes a very big noise when seed arrives to visit. Mr and Mrs seed have fifteen children, eleven thousand grandchildren and one great grandchild. It is interesting to note bar levels for bar levels are neither bare back riders, billionaires, biscuit barrels or broomsticks breaking beers. Carrier pigeons call most effectively in a midday heat whilst flapping to the air like a fly waving to a open sandwich. The sandwich gets quite upset when the flies do this for flies flake flesh and flesh is a mighty weight of acrobatic atomic applets. Apples seek shelter under umbrellas borrowed from the shoe basket in the hall. Then laugh as the humans cannot locate their weather protectors. It is very amusing when chatting to a mild mannered bin for bins contain waste and waste is often wise, witty and witters on and on wildly in a worldwide whorl. Great. How fantastic it is to ask for a cup of tea from a passing family of otters. Otters create the most marvellous of brews and unlike shrews they do not stew their brew. So never leave a hairbrush facing a window if it is painted with silver stripes for such a mistake will be noted by the otters whose fascination with windows and hairbrushes is often quite profound really. Self adjusting images rarely paint landscapes. And a field in a photo is simply philosifying about the growth of potatoe cake plants this year. Ghost of great girth cannot sit on a five centimetre window ledge. And the pretty unicorn in a cloud can canter across the skies at wonderful speeds. Fantastic isn't it. And now that you have learnt all of that it is time to prepare the curry said the little mouse on the turntable. Ok then. Good. Have you a biscuit to eat on the A52? Haha bibbing bubbling bursting brooks baking birthday balloons. Hahaha prism in a circumference equals a happy hexagonal mineral deposit. Traditional turning turbaned turbines. Windmill waltzing with willows. Xxxxx sacramentarianism. Z z z z Z. @ forty foot over a loch
It's enough to make one chunder
there used to be a time Down Under
when fair dinkum the label on the tucker tin
only stated the true blue maker's name
and the Vegemite we'd eat for brekkie contained therein
while not a porky implied mate there's something to hide
with a shonky no responsibility disclaimer
I’m spewin’ cranky as today's focus is on what's not inside
no GMO cholesterol additives gluten calories caffeine nuts
no added colouring sugar preservatives
no artificial sweeteners monounsaturated
no polyunsaturated &/or trans fats
and bloody oath cobber that's not all as I recall
no worries tho' there's also low sodium
not whingeing but one wonders if it's a dodgy admission
there's no bonzer thingo within such as ace nutrition
meanwhile I'll fill my billycan from yon billabong
surrounded by a few emu and a roo or two
as up a gum tree the kookaburra laughingly looks on
there's nothing more I can do so may as well
bung another shrimp on the barbie blow the froth off a few
have one last blast on me didgeridoo Blue and shoot through
As the sun rises over the Billabong
Life began to flow in the dawn of the morning
Crocodiles snaps at its morning food
Large fish swim for their lives
Mosquitoes are in the millions
Swarming all in your face
Camp fires are lit all over the place
People are preparing their morning breakfast
Getting ready for their high pace trip
Not a moment to waste tasting their food
To begin to move with a healthy pace
The Billabong gives up its water
to every living to crunch their thirst
The birds, the crocodile, the mosquitoes
The people must drank to fill their thirst
Not one moment wasted, they move at super pace
The Billabong curbs and run at a fast pace
Watering the land and sand
And everything it can
The drought is coming and thirst will begin
Not one but all will taste its call.
G'day you beauty Blue
as I haven't heard you play
in a year and a day
what did you do
with your fair dinkum didgeridoo
don't get me wrong
but it's been gone so long
has your bonzer boomerang
returned from whence you threw
by yonder backwater billabong
how about your most unusual pet
a marsupial (a roo) if I am correct
was it sold to pocket the proceeds
and pay for your daily needs
or abandoned beside the track
in the bush a.k.a., outback