In Australia
Easter is at the wrong time of the year.
A festival of rebirth in Autumn,
celebrating an empty tomb with chocolate eggs,
as the world slides into winter.
But then,
in Australia,
Summer is the season of ghosts,
when life retreats,
into burrows and tubers,
hides under rocks to escape
heat and fire.
When rivers run dry
and grass shrivels,
like the hair of an old woman.
In Australia,
Autumn is the time of resurrection,
grass sprouting,
and creeks coming back to life.
When schoolgirls walk in misty rain,
farmers feel hope revive,
and commuters start to carry umbrellas.
So,
in Australia,
Easter comes at the right time,
after all.
[Djeran- the ‘Season of Adulthood’ and the third of the six seasons into which the Noongar, the Indigenous people of South-West Western Australia, divide the year, corresponds to the Northern Hemisphere Autumn / Fall.]