Rhythmic thrumming fills the night
December lullaby
Sydney swelters in the summer heat. I rise early to walk in the freshness of the dawn.
The trees reverberate with sound, their trunks festooned with cicada nymph shells.
I pause to help an Orange Drummer hatchling, wings ensnared by the carapace.
At 120 decibels, the noise is deafening, and I move away.
It is a perfect morning, sunshine glittering on eucalyptus leaves, a light breeze teasing the treetops. I dream of summers past, king tides in Sydney harbour, of salt-encrusted skin and peeling sunburn, family gatherings, and soft, velvet nights.
Our world is tired; war, poverty and corruption touch every nation, our media filled with the endless drone of catastrophic news. But on a morning walk, where new life explodes in the trees, oblivious to humanity’s travails, I am grateful for the will of Nature to survive – and thrive.
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