This banksia’s not done with yet

You might see a lonely figure in death but there is another story here

Yes I am leafless and broken, cracked and burnt with branches scattered below

Yes I am leaving but I’m not done with yet.

Defiant I remain standing – and I still have something to give -

I offer a, a roosting spot for the great cocky, the crow and magpie and many others;

I am a refuge my hollows can be your home, my bark a surface for the crawlies, the cracks their shelter, my fallen braches composting for soil of the future;

My design remains an inspiration for the artistic to stop and marvel;

My seeds of yesterdays a lasting gift to the next generations.

I’m bereft but at peace,

I know pain and suffering, of fires and floods, lightning strikes and disease.

Yes I have stories to tell, as I’ve stood witness through the years,

I’m passing on the wisdom of the old ancestors to the new comers that rise around me

Holding the ground, waiting for them to take over and stretch skyward.