it’s hard to explain
the affinity
all around
are depressions in the ground
that have been
in the past
billabongs of the broken river
after it has flooded
water has occupied the low lying ground
creating sequences
of small lakes and ponds
all now empty
but for this one pool
that I pause to watch
and study
day after day
sometimes at intervals of weeks
I compare what I see now
with what was
at my last passing
the shrinkage
the fish
heron ducks and mudlarks
the insect boatmen
and random rising bubbles
I almost want to embrace
the whole shallow catastrophe
but instead
I measure the shrinkage
and wonder
when will floods return
what place will this be
when all the billabongs
are full
and the river
is less broken
© Frank Prem, 2006
Next Poem: ageing optimism
Back to Drought/Lagoon – Introduction
nice one Frank!
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It got there, then? I couldn’t see that the pingback had worked. Glad you liked. An old drought series poem.
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oh yes we know about droughts … pingback is working
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Yes, I see it now. Excellent.
Droughts the world over. Bushfires these days as well.
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yes .. I love a sunburnt country but not a scorched and dry one 🙂
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Which part of the country are you in, Kate?
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Ballina, nsw .. where are you Victoria I am guessing?
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Yep. 30 minutes below Albury.
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lol good guess, love Albury and that area .. used to live in Deni [Deniliquin] for years 🙂
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Went to the Deni Uke Muster a couple of years back. Had a great time.
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lol they had just started when I left, seems the old S and B balls at Conargo were dropped in favour of the ute muster 😦
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Not the ute’s. The uke’s. A ukulele muster. Held annually now.
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lol never heard about that one .. their ute muster is famous so they are obviously playing on the word, very clever 🙂
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Yes, it was a good weekend of workshops and performances.
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certainly less dust and sweeter sounds 🙂
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Too right. We serenaded the town on a mass walk singing you are my sunshine and wimoweh. In and out of shops and all over. Fun.
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lol does sound like Conargo, eccentric fun!
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🙂
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