I love to use botanical names
for Australian native flora
Reminds me of a horse ride
the rhythm of a canter
So many common names
among the native gum
Blues, reds,greys and several kinds of white
Known only to locals as a rule of thumb
Latin names define colour, growth
or even where they're found
Eucalyptus each one distinctive
among seven hundred species that abound
Genus eucalyptus, includes nearly all the gums found on the Australian continent
Flowers of a brilliant hue. yellow, orange, red and white
Attract the native bees, collecting nectar
often hear them buzzing whilst in flight
Twenty four thousand species
of Australian native plants
Grevilleas, melaleucas, acacias, leptospernum, callistems and more
All hosting many animals
possums, goannas, koalas, birds bees and ants
I was awed by the noise..As breath indrawn.? Of mighty
Giants in unseen form..' immediatly after grew the
Vivid lemon walls..towering ramparts a firestorm! fissures
Of red, glints of blue..With a marching noise a crecendo
That grew..Then the road before us began to move as
All types of creatures; as if in a torrent flew.' Snakes and goannas rats and mice, wallabys you name it? All in a trice! no
Animal lingered! or fought with another' they were escaping
From the powerfull flames that smotherd..The octane roar drowned
Your senses alright..!! Sugar cane fields ablaze at night.!!
I'll always remember the workers nearby with machtes at their
Smoko's and that lurid sky.'
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
I Am A Bloke.
I am a bloke you see
that I happen to be,
from Terra Australis,
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
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,
kookaburras:
like to sit on boughs of old gum tree,
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 blokes bloke,
a bush balladeer,
and a poet from the land ‘down under.’
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
Goats
the angels are taking note,
on how yer not acting the goat,
if ya act the goat in time,
they'll figure out the goat drinks wine,
the san-goannas know it,
inbreeding suits em fine,
to be a goat of a poet,
just aint a bloody crime...
Don
re : "Living life" Debbie Duncan
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....
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
a man of words ..better by a third,...
than the rich man's, potentality,
likely not to be read or heard,
when the san-goannas wee...
thanks Dave Williams ....
Don
“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...
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
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:)
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
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
I yield to the earth
in supplication to nature
with worship in each breath
listening to a sermon
of kookaburras
as a kangaroo bounds out
a plate for tithe
I see goannas parade
the ancient rites
and koalas swoon
with the new age gospel
waving their faces,
and hanging from their mouths
and the platypus
monks of cold,
carry the testaments
to the deepest hovels
living with just one heart
I can breathe a tide,
and find home
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