My Country

by Oscar Krahnvohl

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of open drains
Mid-urban sprawl expanded
For cost-accounting gains;
Broad, busy bulldozed acres
Once wastes of fern and trees
Now rapidly enriching
Investors overseas.

A nature-loving country
Beneath whose golden wattles
The creek is fringed with newspapers
And lined with broken bottles.
Far in her distant outback
Still whose cities chafe
I find hidden pools where bathing
Is relatively safe.

A music-loving country
Where rings throughout the land
The jingle sweet enjoining
Devotion to the brand.
O, hark the glad transistors
Whence midnight, dawn and noon,
Cry forth her U.S. idols
A trifle out of tune.

Brave military pylons
That march o’er scenic hills,
Fair neon lights, extolling[1]
Paint, puppy food and pills!
I love her massive chimneys,
Production’s, profit’s pride,
Interminably pouring,
Pollution high and wide.

A democratic country!
Where safe from fear’s attacks
Earth’s children all are equal
(Save yellows, browns and blacks).
Though Man in Space adventure,
Invade the planets nine,
What shall we find to equal
This sunburnt land of mine?

[1] Extolling - praise enthusiastically