Farina

FARINA


Only ruins
Is fair Farīna, a
Place named like baby Farex
From the Latin 'far':
A grain.

Farīna, Farīna...
For 'meal' or 'flour'
In hope of the cereals
Brave settlers were going
To grow there.

In hope borne of a few
Good years of rain, far to north
Of the critical rain-shadowed
Limits of the Goyder Line!
A false hope, false as
Peace in Hitler's time.

All in ruins, Farīna,
Empty lintels, bereft floors,
Fallen walls and gables.
Rooves flown off to the sky
Where a few chimneys still
Smokeless stand.

Farīna, Farīna. A false
Hope of Flour. A dust wash
Of flour, a flour white
As world government that will
End war without oppression.

Farīna, Farīna...
Flour, a dust wash
Of flour, a flour white;
As black human nature will
Self-heal of its sins.

Farīna, Farīna. Flour, a dust
Wash of flour, a flour white
As virtual-modelled climate
that could again equal a climate
of hope, or instead,

Be a climate of fear:
a floury play-dough fear
in our infant human hands,
either for the milling
or the destroying.

Farīna, Farīna...
Flour, a dust wash
Of flour, a flour white
As electricity's lightning
Without the thunder.

Farīna, Farīna...
Flour, a dust wash
Of flour, a flour white
As this dust-desert becomes
As a paper-world returns.

* * *

And yet, yet, Farīna:
Where love was founded;
Love is still.


* * *
Picture: May-June 1995: Sunset over stone ruins, Farina, South Australia