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this poem was published in "Regeneration" an anthology launched at the Byron Bay Writers' Festival, August 2003

Growth Regrowth Regeneration

Canberra Bush Fires, 2003

A week today, the Blackwoods and the Bloodwoods bloomed

Today, both boughs and roots, by scorching fires

Consumed

Yet from this searing heat and burnished soil, arise

Already fresh urging shoots towards

Azure skies

Dehisced pods bursting with promises of pastures, forests

Renewed, amidst blackened stumps, stashed ashes

Charred koalas, stiffened roos

And wobbly wombats, from their hollowed homes come out

Search for food around the stench of death and bones of

Other lives

A week today the Blackwoods and the Bloodwoods bloomed

Tomorrow comes with nature's magic. Our heritage renewed

Not doomed.

~~~