CHANGING AND CHANGELESS

In the city, season's changes only barely leave their mark
for the city's far from nature with it's neon in the dark
The rush and ceaseless hustle leave no time for rain or drought
and no one has the time to see the sun come peeping out

The dirt and grime, the lack of heart, the soulless dead fish eyes
the traffic jams and smog alerts, the crooked deals and lies
The city's unencumbered by a need for flooding rains
and if they come, there's water pipes and flood controls and drains

The bush is more dependent on the cycles of the sun
where nature rules the way of life from dawn till day is done
Where farmers scan an empty sky with hopes of building cloud
and red dust coats the stockman like a ruddy choking shroud

Then with the rains come changes all across the barren land
and life in all its wonder now comes bursting from the sand
Where days before the dry red earth foretold impending doom
now everlasting flowers are a sea of coloured bloom

And now along the river beds the flooding waters race
and with a time of plenty nature quickens up its pace
The magpies flit and warble as they gather up their nest
for till the season turns again there'll be no time to rest

And then the wheel begins to turn the rains will soon abate
and those who live by nature's law are in the hands of fate
But city streets remain the same though seasons come and go
no room it seems for nature's world, that ceaseless ebb and flow

(c) May 2003 Written in Alice Springs, Northern Territory

Mt. Connor, Northern Territory

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