The Dig Tree
Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 8:38 am
The Dig Tree
How could this be, that after months of hell,
Of endless miles of blasted deserts crossed,
That now but this blazed coolibah to tell
The wretched men, for them all hope is lost.
There on its trunk the message cut so clear
That but nine hours before their comrades left,
And now these three can sense the end is near
As Burke regrets the folly that had cleft
His party all those months before, when he
Had dashed with King and Gray and Wills
To reach the gulf, now but this wounded tree
To mark where buried store, such bitter pills
That at the end of this great quest delay
The deaths of brave men, starved and weak
Abandoned on this melancholy day
By Bullah Bullah on the Cooper Creek.
© Dennis N. O'Brien, 2011, 2012
How could this be, that after months of hell,
Of endless miles of blasted deserts crossed,
That now but this blazed coolibah to tell
The wretched men, for them all hope is lost.
There on its trunk the message cut so clear
That but nine hours before their comrades left,
And now these three can sense the end is near
As Burke regrets the folly that had cleft
His party all those months before, when he
Had dashed with King and Gray and Wills
To reach the gulf, now but this wounded tree
To mark where buried store, such bitter pills
That at the end of this great quest delay
The deaths of brave men, starved and weak
Abandoned on this melancholy day
By Bullah Bullah on the Cooper Creek.
© Dennis N. O'Brien, 2011, 2012