<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365953" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Kurdaitcha Tree</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Out where the land lies in silence<br>And whispers it, <br>Where the sun burns on white skin<br>'Til it blisters it, <br>There the earth turns in the Dreamtime<br>Of Everland, <br>Bush turns to sand, and dry creek beds<br>In Neverland.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There lies a farm that has fought<br>And has weathered it, <br>Two hundred years, generations have<br>Gathered it, <br>Some say their harvest is naught<br>But a miracle, <br>Reaping where nothing grows, so<br>Says the Oracle.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Just enough rainfall to turn<br>Away famine, <br>Just enough stock feed to graze<br>Sheep and cows in, <br>There in the outback for five<br>Generations, <br>The family of Bevan has<br>Made supplications.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Is there a God up in heaven? <br>Why isn't he? <br>Not in this cauldron of sunshine<br>And misery, <br>We could just do with some Mannah<br>From heaven, <br>Send down the rain, ' said young<br>Jacob John Bevan.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jacob, the last of the line in <br>His battle, <br>Breaking his back, digging wells, <br>Driving cattle, <br>Steering his tractor along<br>The dry paddocks, <br>Beating the drought stricken ground<br>With his mattocks.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Spreading his seed and then<br>Watching it wasted, <br>Hoping for rain, though his God<br>Had misplaced it, <br>Crying to heaven to give<br>Some relief there, <br>Watching the earth shrink and crack<br>By his feet there.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Right in the heart of some barren<br>Dead parkland, <br>Stood an old tree, on its own, <br>In its heartland; <br>Blocking the tractor, obstructing <br>His ploughing, <br>A tree that stood tall, that the wind<br>Spoke to, soughing.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This was the tree that was known <br>As Kurdaitcha, <br>'Never cut down, ' said the native<br>Koradji, <br>'Some trees are spirits, and this<br>One much evil, <br>If it should fall, you will<br>Let out big devil.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Four generations of Bevans<br>Had heeded, <br>Left the old tree, that parched land<br>Wasn't needed, <br>Now, with a break in the drought<br>Jacob swore, <br>'I'll need every inch of that land<br>To yield more.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Taking his axe, he went down there<br>And felled it, <br>Creaking and groaning, it toppled, <br>He quelled it, <br>Then he pulled out the old stump<br>With his tractor, <br>Dragged it away, but then<br>Never looked back there.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Deep in the night, in the still<br>And the darkness, <br>Something was beating, some creature, <br>But heartless, <br>Spread from the hole that the<br>Tree had kept hidden, <br>Took to the air from some<br>God awful midden.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Spread over trees and then<br>Covered the ground, <br>By morning they'd eaten each<br>Green thing around, <br>When Jake woke up early and<br>Stepped out of doors, <br>The locusts had covered the<br>Feed bins, and bores.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They covered the tractor, they<br>Caught in his hair, <br>They kept pouring out from<br>That paddock down there, <br>And when they had stripped and<br>Destroyed to the heart, <br>They headed due South, to<br>Consume every part.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The bodies of millions<br>Lay in the dirt, <br>As Jacob John Bevan beat<br>Hard at his shirt, <br>He went to the paddock to<br>Check the old tree, <br>The hole, it lay silent, <br>As silent could be.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But then a new rumble, of <br>Scampering squeals, <br>And now there were millions of<br>Mice at his heels, <br>'I've opened Pandora! ' Jake <br>Turned him to flee, <br>'The curse is forever from<br>This evil tree.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Australia lies silent, and listens<br>For sounds, <br>That white men might make when<br>The sun, it goes down, <br>The rivers run dry and the drought's<br>Sea to sea, <br>Since one man cut down<br>The Kurdaitcha Tree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">7 July 2008</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=David+Lewis+Paget">David Lewis Paget</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365953" data-title="The Kurdaitcha Tree de David Lewis Paget" data-description="Out where the land lies in silence And whispers it, Where the sun burns on white skin 'Til it blisters it, There the earth turns in the Dreamtime Of Everland, Bush turns to sand, and dry creek beds In Neverland. There lies a farm that has foug..."></div> </div> </div>

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