The Mountain Bush

The Mountain Bush There is nothing so beautiful as the bush in Australia, I’ve seen a few others but to me they’re a failure. So climb aboard my pen and I’ll take you for a ride As we visit the bush on the Great Divide. Where clouds glide as mist along the valley floors, Rising through gum trees where the Wedge Tailed Eagle soars. Where the smell of damp Eucalypts fills the air The Black Cockatoo screeches to let you know he’s there. A mountain stream babbles over rocks smooth and round. Fishbone ferns on the bank everywhere to be found, The Cutty grass hangs down and kisses the water’s edge Boronia bushes sweet perfume the air from a rocky ledge. The tall straight Mountain Ash reaches endlessly for the sky And the wind at the treetops makes branches rub and sigh, Where the filtered sunlight dances across the stream below In the mid morning daylight when the sun begins to show. A distinctive “Ping Ping” in the gullies as the Bellbirds call From Tree Ferns like umbrellas standing thirty feet tall. All around cicadas continue grating all day And moths above the water keep out of trout’s way. Twilight comes early as the sun disappears And insects calling herald the night as it nears The stars are so bright that they leap from the sky And the only sound heard is the brook passing by. There is nothing so beautiful as the bush in Australia When Mother Nature decks it out in her full regalia So travel near and far, take the world in your stride But you’ll come back to the bush on the Great Divide. The Swagman Written November 14th, 2001 © on Nov 13 2001 06:19 PM PST   0 • 10