• He looks skyward, mouth wide open, eyes fixed
He looks skyward, mouth wide open, eyes fixed.
Behind and over him bushfire smoke blows, carried by a south west wind from 184,000 hectares of burnt, burning, kindred rocks, trees, birds, kangaroos, koalas, birds, snakes, insects, butterflies, leaves.
In his thousands and thousands of years, now - something new.
Terminal.
But not for him.
Them.
Us.
Do we wish he is praying for us?
Earth, perhaps?
Or is he voicelessly crying, “Goodbye”.
And he wakes next day to this.
• Morning comes again to Newnes, Wolgan Valley, NSW, Australia
Is it hope?
No.
A terrible beauty.
[Evening and morning at Newnes, amid the bushfire-ridden Wollemi National Park, 28, 29 November 2019, NSW, Australia.]
Michael Mobbs
Postscript: Last evening the Wolgan Bushfire burnt that mountain side: the hotel facebook page shows photos: https://www.facebook.com/Newnes-Hotel-121099451316028/
• The 418,000 hectare Wolgan or Gospers Mountain bushfire came to the Wolgan valley last evening, 18 December 2019