I LOVE YOU,  AUSTRALIA

             Dedicated to my parents, Val and Merve

I love you, Australia,

The land where I'm born.

Je t'aime, Australia,

From you I am torn.

I love you, Australia,

The land of the free.

You, beautiful island,

You're special to me.

I love you, Australia,

With your soil so red.

Je t'aime, Australia,

The land where I'm bred.

I adore you, Australia,

The great land that I left.

Je t'aime, Australia,

Without you, I'm bereft.

I love your wide plains

With hardly a tree.

Your barren terrain

Makes me feel so free.

I love your clear oceans

As blue as can be.

I love your fresh air

Which smells pure to me.

I adore your strange birds

That swoop overhead.

I recall their shrill calls.

They're fixed in my head.

I cherish your forests,

Your palms and your dunes,

Your beautiful sunsets,

Your romantic moons.

I missed you, Australia.

I tried hard to go back

But it did not work out.

I pursued the wrong track.

I miss your golf courses,

Your deserts and beaches.

I dream of them nightly,

Their alluring features.

I miss your sweet fruits.

I still taste them now.

Ripe mangoes and paw paws,

Dangling from each bough.

I miss your porpoises

Frolicking in the surf,

Such playful creatures

When they're on their turf.

I miss the outback,

With its mozzies and flies,

Koalas, goannas,

My Nanna's flaky, meat pies.

I love your people.

They are my true kin.

I'll love them always.

For them I will sin.

You are my birth country.

I'll love you forever.

I miss you dearly.

Forget you? Not ever!

A/N I dedicate this poem to my loving parents who

raised me in such a beautiful country but who,

unfortunately, are no longer with us.

Revised February 1, 2023

Revisited January 26, 2024 (Australia Day)