I sat at breakfast in my courtyard
Drinking in the morning hush,
And sipped my brew of morning coffee, And watched the bottle-brush.
There the rainbow lorikeets
Were drinking in white blossoms’ nectar, As they flitted from small twig to twig In multi-coloured splendour.
And from my courtyard I could hear The butcher birds and magpies singing, And a kookaburra in a gum-tree
Laughing at their trilling.
Crows were ever-present, carking. An ibis scavenged on the lawn.
Pigeons picked, and two doves coo-ed To greet the morn.
No sea-breeze blew to cool the heat That blazed as sun climbed higher. Crows will soon invade the ground And end dawn’s tuneful choir.
It’s dry; we pray for rain to come. Clouds form in the west each day. The hot sun sinks, and the moon rises, And clouds have blown away.
All day the sun beats harshly down. All day the air grows stiller.
I retreat from summer heat