Best Goannas Poems
On a parched outback plain,
there is a winding course.
Red gums line the banks
of a once water source.
But sand is creeping quickly,
through drought and failing rain,
so the flora must adapt,
on a parched outback plain.
The black box struggles on;
desert pea seed needs rain.
Quandong wants the wattle
to fight through the dry again,
but when it gets too parched,
life finds the boiling sun,
can be a bridge too far,
so many do succumb.
The living and the dead
keep standing side by side.
One is dressed in green;
one gray with life denied.
One shade for a traveler;
one hollowed out instead;
and accompany one another -
The living and the dead.
On the floodplain of an anabranch
where the soil is dry and dust.
The salt bush remains prolific
where beneath them is a crust.
Parts of nitre bush are dying,
but the rest keeps struggling on.
There’s skeletons of invadors;
sun seered now dead and gone.
Skeletons line the shrinking water
of carp that are deceased,
and carcasses of kangaroos
from starvation has increased.
A feast for roaming goannas,
who scavange on the dead,
beside ravens and the eagles,
until the living are well fed.
The living leave the dead
in their struggle to survive
as they search for greener pasture
once the rain does finally arrive.
The cycle starts it’s journey
that’s been hanging by a thread,
and new life that’s in the ouback
to keep living needs the dead.
Nasty Aussies
Nasty critters do we have
Under the Southern Cross
Deadly Funnel Web Spider
Deadly Blue ringed octopus
Box jelly fish might get you (deadly)
Great white shark eat you too (nice fella)
Our Redback spider nips a bit (burns like hot coal)
And Possums in the loo (toilet)
A Pelican will blurt on you (whitewash)
Cane toads come in the house (poison glands on back)
Sand goannas sucking eggs
Roo’s will punch you out
Pussycats they are perhaps
Paralyss tick gets you
Short arm snake attacks, gets slaps
The Shielas run off too
Don Johnson 15-may-11
Dirranbandi River
Dirranbandi river, grows the cotton,
Waiting for the rains to come,
Dig into the sandy bottom,
Fill your bucket, water some,
Three years of drought,
And then the flood it comes,
Brown snakes are swimming all about,
See the Sand Goannas run,
Get the sheep to the higher ground,
Drown it will, if you leave just one,
Horses standing in the water, bound,
to put em on the sand hill son,
Kookaburras are a laughing,
Food drops on the station runs,
Bread an milk an butter carting,
Parachuted in the sun.
Don Johnson20-sep-11
Francine Roberts
Contest Name Flowing water
A phone call was all that’s needed and the message it was clear;
“Get your bum away from home and bring your family here.
And don’t forget your fishing rods; the bream are on the bite.
I know you’re off this weekend so be here tomorrow night”.
All we had to do was turn up so the weekend’s organized.
Us men will fish on Saturday while the women get familiarized.
Sunday’s to be at Lake Tyers; we’re fishing in the ‘Trident Arm’,
and everything had gone to plan - fish were biting like a charm -
- When there isn’t any toilets one must find a comfort tree.
And it’s much harder for a lady; Cheryl was first to see
the dangers of the bush when the call of nature’s needed.
But she found a way to hold on when her need was superseded.
For where our cars were parked many more had parked before
and fed the wild goannas, and so now they’re wild no more.
Then Cheryl ‘came the lucky one to discover in her need,
three hungry tame goannas met her in a gauntlet wanting feed.
When time was ready for departure, the rest of us got to see,
the goannas who were still about and waiting patiently.
But they didn’t care for sausages no matter how we tried to goad.
One preferred the rubbish bin; the others strolled off up the road.
On our way home with our catch, of snapper, flatties and some bream,
we stopped at Burnt Bridge where others fished, but their catches here were slim,
I waited in my car that was parked close to where undergrowth was dense,
and watched some movement in bauri; for a time it seemed no sense.
Then six foot of reptile slid with ease and hid underneath my car.
I looked downward out my window then its head stuck out so far.
This goanna waddled to the road and crossed the bridge without a care.
Cars had to wait on either side, and it bothered no one there.
Tourist traps
Can a plonker should a plonker,
love a San-Goanna stonker,
not unless he’s bloody bonkers
coming is de crazy cats in white,
see crazy San-Goannas running,
sucking birds eggs, an out a hunting ,
Kookaburra eating snakes humming,
Ha, ha. ha, ha, sweet delight…
Mr tourist, watchem watchem,
Keep the eyeball sharp insight,
Funnel web, dodge and sidestep,
Death is coming with his bite
Watchem mr death by adder,
Step on him will fang ya badder,
Piddle from the bloody bladder,
Hysterectomy of fright,
Mr Death do say goodnight…
Don Johnson
no bities are getting ironed out by Aussies, some are protected like brown snakes, Brisbane still has Brown snakes and Kangaroos, though they are rare here...Funnell web spider is found in the Toowoomba mountain area and in Sydney suburbs sometimes....watch out for trapdoor web over an inch or bigger hole in ground....
Droving Carolyn,
You could always come a droving,
on the stock route we'd be roving,
sleep neath the stars,
an rough it on the track.
Where the Dingoes howl at midnight,
and the Sand Goannas fight with Brown Snakes,
and the air is sweet as honey,
but there isn't any money,
and you wash in rivers,
sometimes, way outback.
Riding in a Poley saddle,
Slowing back the cattle,
To get a feed of Flinders grass so sweet,
Just a walking leading me horse,
Chomping Damper corn meat an sauce,
Yes me Quartpot boiled of course ,
An I’m drinking some black tea,
Not too bloody sugary.
The trucking yards are waiting,
Two days away, let em go,
in the long paddock tonight,…(stock route)
Tomorrow we will muster,
watch the brown horse, watch him buster,
or he’ll drop you in the long grass,
and you won’t bloody like?
Don Johnson 19-june-11
San-Goanna Blue
Morning Halliwell are you right? {rhymer halliwell is 85}
or have your toes tucked up so tight,
are you with us or cantered through,
beyond the vale Saint Peters Zoo,
no brown snakes there tonight?
Or are you dancing an Irish jig,
With some well fed porker pig,
And playing snooker too,
Or bilious Kangaroo,
and on into the bloody night,
with Sand-Goannas what a sight
and lacy Monitors joined in too,
Brownie snake said bugger off Blue,
that Goanna just might bite...
Don Johnson
What to Submit?
1 original, poem on the theme of ...Give me your zaniest funniest Poem you can Muster up~~Be Silly
Cyril Brown
Oh his name was Cyril Brown ,
An he weighed 300 pound,
An the Sand goannas sidestepped,
where he stomped.
Little centric was ol Brown,
Sometimes, often came to town,
To watch the kids,
and peanuts there to chomp.
Oh his poor old car did suffer,
With a sandbag for a buffer,
And his voice got a little gruffer,
A flaming counterweight .
Bark hut to house was sort of,
On the Station ranch was thought of,
Brother Mark would listen,
to the snakes under the floor.
And the Rabbit bunnies springing,
The birds were chirping, singing,
And carpet snakes were bringing,
Tucker more n more n more.
Brownie had an iron bed that suffered,
Bowed and flustered, busted ,
And the peanut shells,
stopped the opening of the door.
Once he towed young Mark to town,
On the Fergie tractor, brown,
And at 50 mile an hour was still a flying,
And the tractor was a bouncing,
trying to touch the ground,
announcing, would he ever get to town?
Mark wasn’t really sure, why.
A friend waved to ol Brown, hi,
At 7 foot tall, a local yokel clown.
So he hit the anchors with a frown,
Tractor tried to knock the back door down,
Brownie muttered with surprise.
So then back off to town,
Dragging tractor,
sidestepping round,
Got to Dirran then he stopped,
To buy more peanuts brown.
Don Johnson
Sam came from Bollon on the Wallan S.W.Queensland Aus.
Sam Mc Croon came from Bollon soon
When he heard about old Galoon the Batey
She was big an a Ox light in her sox
And she loved her Irish Pp praety (potato)
They married at once she was no dunce
They tripped to the altar so fine
The kangaroo dogs would bark twice or once (greyhounds used for catching kangaroo)
Goannas cantered off with the wine…….damn gwanas…
Religion came round to the poor little town
They dropped in on poor old Batey
The old shack floor was dirt and some more
And they took Cockies joy, just lately…….(syrup) (Cockies = Aussie Farmers)
Bronco Don appeared saw Batey in tears …….(my Dad Bronco Don )
Don cantered right amongst the religious
Cracked his whip in their tent his anger did vent
Demanded, got cans back prodigious
Now Sam he did work for a man with a quirk
One Colin Mc Farlan Okeefe
He had Sam watching out in a paddock for work
Under a sheet of iron for a sheep thief
Old Sam he did sink down a sewerage trench deep
When tripping across after the rain
Bronco Don reefed him out, hosed him off poor old sheep
And rescued him later again…………(Sam got swallowed up twice)
Sam went to hospital with the flu for a week or two
Had his singlet soaked to get it off
For the hair on his chest had grown right through
Water weakens a man he’d just scoff….(bit shy around water)
Jimmy the lover came to call, banged upon her door
Just come out little sweet Batey
He said I’ve got bananas from the store
She said there’s no body home, come lately…
Jezebel McCroon slept in a room
on a mattress of indian rubber
Aren’t you afraid of Jimmy McDade
the great charmer the lover
Jez just said if I strip naked on the bed
he won’t see me instead
Won’t see me less I smile in the dark,
He’ll sidestep away like a plover unfed
Without a squeak or a squark…..Don Johnson
Silence
Beware the silence in your head,
Best check to see if you are dead,
The words are there but nothing said,
Blood does flow, still bloody red,
Prospect uninviting,
Sandgoannas are a fighting,
They want to eat old Fred
Don Johnson
if you're dying in the donga,
by the shores of linga longa,
and the dingoes howl cos tuckers on the way,
and the crows are circling yonder,
upon a feed to ponder,
but the Goannas have it covered here today:)
1930s Dirranbandi as mum Nelly says
In the town of Dirranbandi near the Cubbie cotton farm
was sea of Wilga trees with their dark green leafy charm
the Goats ate green Wilga standing on their back legs
( trees trimmed neatly underneath )
the horses were in hobbles , washing on the Wilga pegged
the Bumble tree would give you fruit for morning jam
Snottygobbles were sucked down fast as you can (mistletoe)
Napans and Quandong were wild growing fruit trees
Piemelon was a bit tartry jam, add sugar if you please
How it was in 1930 where the Claypan dances flowed
On the flat near Charlies Brummell's where a hundred Wilgas growed
The Devils claw might grab a sheep, and goat heads spiked your foot
And Sand goannas did their best to suck eggs out of chooks...
Old Dirran has gone south a bit from when we had it all
Back in the days of Feather chook who sometimes rode so tall (pushbike)
Boomi Jack has a sheep down, come and get the gall fat Harry
And lamb chops were had for breakfast cos old Boomi never married
(Boomi was partial to Harry's sheep)
Green frogs were in the rainwater tank, tasted froggy too
Rain water with a touch of bird dropping to make strong tea for you
The houses had dirt floors the kitchen wore some soot
Look sideways at a Copper, your butt would get his boot
Don Johnson
“I get knocked down but I get up again, they aint ever gonna keep me down,”
But I always wind up looking like a toothless bloody clown,
“Late that night I saved the life of Ringo,”
And then I got arrested for almost playing bingo
“I got stripes all around my shoulders, I got chains all around my knees,”
An them sandy Goannas aint having no feed of me,
“Leave him out there in the long yard, do not rush him.”
Be gentle with me when you have your way,
“They went out to search the ranges for the little boy lost,”
And they surely bloody found him later on that day!
Tubthumping by Chumbawumba, I get knocked down.
Lorne Greene’s, Ringo
I got stripes, Jonny Cash
Leave him in the long yard Slim Dusty
Little boy lost Jonny Ashcroft
Tracie ~*~ A solitary sonnetist
Contest Name sing a song for me...
I Am Bloke...
I am bloke you see
that I happen to be,
from Terra Australis land,
and who likes to write about
the many things I’ve found,
that it is of the bush,
the scrub,
and other places be.
however, it is most of all
are the animals that interest to me,
who creep and crawl about
inhabiting our land,
and in the course of my days I’ve found;
bush turkeys:
make a bloody mess,
wombats:
are cute, in their burrowing ways,
kangaroos:
like to bound about regardless,
red bellied black:
highly venomous bloke,
echidnas:
are prickly folk at their best,
goannas:
simply like to run up trees,
daddy-long-legs
are really and truly scary hairy beasts,
platypus and platypi
are not really seen by many folks,
kookaburras:
like to sit on boughs of olde gum trees
and laugh their silly heads off,
cane toads:
squishy, squashy are best left dead under feet,
great white sharks:
need to stay in ponds;
but for me on the other hand,
there are many others I could write about,
who play their part and make
the Australian landscape
as the only one of its kind,
and for this I’m proud to be,
a blokey bloke,
a bush balladeer,
and a poet from the land ‘down under.’
Francis Cooper - Mac
you paint a picture with the words,
another world, where fly the birds,
and natures tune is strummed,
into Aussie's heads is drummed,
Crocs and Sharks will eat you chum,
but the new chums, aint perturbed?
they get eaten like a nerd,
where the Sand-Goannas run:)
sometimes ...
Don Johnson
re: Louisiana Bayou...Leo Larry Amadore
Plenty is forsaken
Before
Serenity is Awkened
Vehemence of flames devour branches
Fire's wicked lick strikes long bark skirts
Devastation ashen flattened unrecognisable
Has a seemingly insurmountable task
Charcoal spurs awakening of tiny children
Stubborn sprouts assert their need with a shove
Koalas discarded crawl tentatively back to snack
Goannas gratefully lap at ash powdered puddles
Great Southern Land is a Lady on a mission
Renowned for whole hearted hatred challenging
Hard nosed creatures created to recover, resume
Their calm rightful realm of red stemmed growth
Abundance is given a great chance in our Autumn
Eucalypt wave flags of ever shifting resilience
Terror of fire has no existence in their ambition
Vibrant tiles of lime tickle black yesterday's belly
18th August 2020
Written for Contest: Serenity Awakened
Sponsor: Regina McIntosh