Australia’s Summer

I cannot forget
your steely-white glare;
the too-hot press of you against my skin.
My body contracted
until cracks appeared. 
 Plants wilted,
 waterholes sucked in
and my body fissured
abandoned to exuberant wind
and the angry roar
of carbon-crazed dragons.

The smoke rolled over us all
like hell's too-slow envoy.
Before it, a syndicate of
unspeakable black halos
infecting eyes, hearts and homes.

And for such 
violent indifference
to be reflected 
in the leadership.