Soliloquy of a Scribbly Gum
– – –
A Scribbly Gum here I stand
My species iconic, proud, but now condemned
They cast the red die on my girth, the red mark of death
So numbingly final
Glazed thoughts I can only muster
My roots here so ancient, means nothing to them
Scribblies flourished this land since Gondwana dawn
Pervading this old stone country high and deep
– – –
Once a wild place
A natural order, virgin and vast
Of times past, these primitive escarpments hosted wilderness
When old men Scribby Gums knew no saw
– – –
Came the getters, the settlers, the saws
For conquest, for progress, for their plot with a view
Wilderness they castrate, deemed it ‘battleaxe’
Ridges and valleys to the slaughter
Slaughter they sanitized, deemed it ‘clearing’
– – –
Some saw the wrong
Some good laws got through
Some Scribblies saved from slaughter
So why not protect me now?
– – –
Heritage denied me just trees away
Relegated from their Listing, on the fringe
Zoned a resource, a fuel, a hazard
Decisions cast from the Hill, to serve those from distant hills
Now they reason I block their view, I block their way
They cast the red die on my girth, the red mark of death
– – –
I’ll miss the rain most, the best time
When nature regains control
When the cloud drifts in, when it feels wild again
And dark rumblings roam and flare above
Dousing me in soaking cloud
Wild escarpment days
– – –
Motors approach. They come for me
Only a bus, it slows, they take photos, it groans away
Quiet again
– – –
Below the cloud, a piercing sunset glows my bark gold
Down the valley, the bush blanket surges
A breeze rising up the escarpment, fans me fresh
Around me branches sway, then settle, restful
Still again,
Quiet again
– – –
Soon they come
They cast the red die on my girth, the red mark of death
My death an extinction wedge
When they scatter my woodchips on their plot
Will they know I was once a Scribbly Gum – free and wild?
Their photos will torment of treasure lost
This wild country locked in myth
Motors approach
A saw starts
No!
.
by Editor, 23-Oct-04.
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