Vonda Stanley's collection of early Australian bush poems

A GALLOP OF FIRE

 

When the north wind moans thro' the blind creek courses

And revels with harsh, hot sand,

I loose the horses, the wild red horses,

I loose the horses, the mad, red horses,

And terror is on the land.

With prophetic murmer the hills are humming,

The forest-kings bend and blow;

With hoofs of brass on the baked earth strumming,

O brave red horses, they hear us coming,

And the legions of death lean low.

O'er the wooded height, and the sandy hollow

Where the boles to the axe have rung,

Tho' they fly the foreman as flies the swallow,

The fierce red horses, my horses, follow

With flanks to the faint earth flung.

Or with frenzied hieroglyphs, fear embossing

Night's sable horizon bars,

Thro' tangled mazes of death-darts crossing,

I swing my leaders and watch them tossing

Their red manes against the stars.

But when South winds sob in the drowned creek courses

And whisper to hard wet sand,

I hold the horses, the spent red horses,

I hold the horses, the tired red horses,

And silence is on the land.

Yea, the South wind sobs among the drowned creek courses

For sorrows no man shall bind---

Ah, God! For the horses, the black plumed horses,

Dear God! For the horses, Death's own pale horses,

That raced in the tracks behind.

 

Marie E. J. Pitt 

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