MELALEUCA MORNING Come see the light break come watch the sun Here on this new day Christmas begun Start from the dark branch crown of a king Flowers of purple blossom and cling. Melaleuca morning mantle Cascades from the heat and night Bears upon its royal holly Birth of peace and love and light. Out of the old wood twisted and hard Song of December silent unheard Bursts like a promise onto the stem Amidst the sharp leaves new life begun. Melaleuca morning sunrise From the years of drought and storm From the hours of heat and darkness The lord of love and life is born. Sun splash in forest from land and scrub Parkland and city backstreets and drab Late in the season flame from the earth Trees that are bearing signs of his birth. Melaleuca morning matins Magpies carol from the lawn all created earth is singing the child of hope and light is born. 25
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COUCH GRASS FIRE She forks huge streaming pieces of the sky onto the ragged flag of orange flame. The tall dark-tented woman tossing a hundred stick and shadow-shapes between the wild olive and along the old stone hill-house wall. Blue smoke curling in long coils of sharp and hooking wire - warm and old; gathering back the ends of all the summers here. March misting into smoky autumn afternoons. The long collection of ordinary unknown lives rolling back from this old street and corner-lane. An old woman tending a couch fire - and the blue barbed smoke catching at the eyes for tears. 39
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