Saturday, June 23, 2007

TELL ME STORY -Poem by Herb Wharton



Tell Me a Story


looking at a picture of old man on wall
by Herb Wharton


Old man from the dreamtime
tell me a story
of your legends and lores
or tell me of nature
and a mother called earth.


Who taught you medicine
how to make fire
who was builder taught you to fish
with traps made of stone.
Genetics you knew of
controlling of birthbreeding and marriage
what was right meat,
what was taboo,
who was doctor made all these rules.
The shaping of grindstone
for milling of flour
designing of boomerang
woomerra and spear
who hold the patient
old man from the past.
When lacking in calories
dirt rich in vitamins
from anthill you ate
who was dietician told you do that
de-toxin the poison
from berries and roots
who was the chemist
taught you do that.
The corroborees you dance
movements and step
who wrote the script,
the drumming and clacking of sticks
the sounds of horn made from wood
who was musician
old man on the wall.

The painting in caves

and peckings on stone

who was historian

recorded all that.
Alas only silence
from old man on the wall
his secrets (old dreamtime)
lay hiddenin depth of the soil.
Old tribal man from dreamtime past
you knew of nature's secrets
you worshipped mother earth
men trying to learn today
things you knew ten thousand years ago.
With rocket ships now aimed at Mars
men have walked upon the moon
yet still secrets of your dreamtime
and hope of future races
all lie in mother earth.
Tell Me a Story

by Herb Wharton

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