By Douglas J. Lanzo
Copyright 2021

First published in Vita Brevis Press Poetry Magazine on October 2, 2021

From ochre-red desert
to cerulean sea
Australia’s vast landscape
weaves bright-hued tapestry;

From silver-green tree tops
to flaxen outback bush
where thorny devils wait
for stray ants to ambush;

From steely gray waters
full of worms and crayfish
where platypus paddle
for a freshwater dish,
to churning white thunder
dropped from sandstone plateaus
by emerald forests
overlooking rainbows;

From rich magenta coral
housed in translucent reefs
where anemone reign
across vast purple fiefs,
to black basalt beaches
stalked by dingoes at dawn
for beached turtles and whales
that from deep sea were drawn;

From verdant savannah
where brown wallabies graze
to dry-season outback
when mint eucalypt blaze;

No matter what backdrop
or paint palette you seek
Australia’s pageantry
offers wonders unique.