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Video clip from Shadow of Eden by Rachael Romero on the Magdalen laundries of Australia

(c) Rachael Romero

"Corra Lynn"

Northern Tasmania 2004

              Nature and other Forces

                    Fixwrite Press - 17 pages

                    Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird might come.

                    ~ Chinese Proverb ~

             Contents:

                    Landscape writing
                    Corporate Government
                    Triazine Mist
                    Duplicity
                    Carr Villa Cemetery Free Ground
                    The Cataract Gorge
                    Autumn
                    Solstice
                    Daylesford Circa 2006
                    The Last perfect day
                    Symphony of destruction
                    Sky over Styx
                    East Tamar Fabric
                    As I found It

Carr Villa Cemetery Free Ground

grey concrete slabs
peppered with lichen
litter the wasteland
beneath aged cypress
the rise and fall
of neglected earth
a silent clue
to the unmarked graves
of those forgotten
and others never known
at their passing
a field of crumbling stones
with faded names

© Merlene Fawdry

Myrmecia traverse dusty rooftops
of their subterranean homes
to forage amongst dried lichen
and leaf litter
gathered between splayed limbs
of slain colossi where,
with a colony of stag beetles,
they are the sole survivors
of the decimation of their habitat.
They unite to form the nucleus
of a Lilliputian world;
to spawn the rebirth of an ecosystem,
stolen in a coup of ignorance and greed
by a government that has ceded control
to the higher power
of the slayers of the earth.
In the silent sky a lone pardalote
in a solitary flypast
dips its wings to honour the fallen
then departs forever in search of
the manna of its survival.

The sun pauses briefly
to smile
upon our neighbours
of the north
before departing
leaving shorter days
and chilled shadows
while Sirius sheds its rays
to herald the brief
reign of saturn
when cancer signals
awakening and rebirth
of our solar self
and mithra promises
a return of divine light.

© Merlene Fawdry

beneath fragrant Sassafras
and lush tree ferns
an inquisitive quoll explores
the once pristine understorey
of the forest floor
he nudges the limp form
of his companion;
his mother
who went before him
to slake her thirst
from the liquid crystal
of nature’s force
alone now he looks around
the heart of the forest
and the soul of our planet
as it falters and dies
under the lethal mist of triazine

CORPORATE GOVERNMENT

leviathans of the Styx
crash and burn
betrayed by
the predatory government
of the day

© Merlene Fawdry

Published in The Australian Reader 2004

Gum trees line the highways
dripping eucalypt tears
in soul pain
for the ravage
and decimation
taking place
behind the deceptive screen
they have been spared to provide

               Daylesford Circa 20006

on wombat hill                           
the convent stands
habits of the past replaced
by fast moving baristas      
latte artists clad
in the same black garb
but of a different faith
for the today people

                            shadows of the past
                            recede and fade away
                            behind the peeling paint
                            of houses nested
                            in aging gardens
                            a country culture
                            lost forever
                            to the dictates of fashion

miner’s cottages newly built
recreate the past
through a false history
behind refurbished shopfronts
cheap imports are sold
at inflated prices
a souvenir of the visit
to the spa town

the miner’s picks were silenced
when the gold rushed to a close
then the earth gave up
a greater gift
to keep the town alive
a liquid clean and pure
a vitality of nature
free for all who came

a country town cedes defeat
and is buried
under layers of modernity
where affluent urbanites
of the corporate world
have created a façade
of hip, chic and gauche
timelessness

in the cemetery
respected names
of pioneers of the town
carved on gravestones
that have been forgotten
in the passage of time
lost in the dust
of their owner’s remains

alternative lifestylers
have over-imposed
south yarra, toorak
and trendy carlton streetscapes
on the nineteenth century icon
to genteel holidays
spent taking the water
at the bath house

Amnesty

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