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This is a poem written by a farmer in Australia to highlight the seriousness of depression people are suffering out there. Get your tissues out it’s beautiful.

RAIN FROM NOWHERE

His cattle didn’t get a bid they were fairly bloody poor
What was he going to do he couldn’t feed them any more
The dams were all but dry hay was thirteen bucks a bale
Last month’s talk of rain was just a fairy tale

His credit had run out – no chance to pay whats owed
Bad thoughts ran through his head as he drove down Gully Road
“Geeze Great Grandad bought the place back in 1898
Now I’m such a useless bastard I’ll have to shut the gate
Can’t even support my wife and kids not like Dad and those before
Even Grandma kept it going when Pop fought in the war”
With depression now his master he abandoned what was right
There’s no place in life for failures he’d end it all tonight

There were still things to do he’d have to shoot the cattle first
Of all the jobs he’d ever done that would have to be the worst
He’d have a shower watch the news then they’d all sit down for tea
Read his kids a bedtime story watch some more TV
Kiss his wife goodnight say he was off to shoot some roos
Then in a paddock far away he’d blow away the blues

But he drove in the gate and stopped as he always had
To check the roadside mailbox and found a letter from his Dad
Now Dad was not a writer Mum did all the cards and mail
But he knew the style from the notebooks that he used at cattle sales
He sensed the nature of its contents felt moisture in his eyes
Just the fact his Dad had written was enough to make him cry

“Son I know it’s bloody tough it’s a cruel and twisted game
This life upon the land when you’re screaming out for rain
There’s no candle in the darkness not a single speck of light
But don’t let the deamond get you, you have to do what’s right
I don’t know what’s in your headbut push the bad thoughts well away
See you’ll always have your family at the back end of the day
You have to talk to someone and yes I know I rarely did
But you have to think about Fiona and think about the kids

“I’m worried about you son you havent rung in quite a while
I know the road you’re on ’cause I’ve walked every mile
The date December 7 back in 1983
Behind the shed I had the shotgun rested in the Brigalow tree
See I’d borrowed way too much to buy the Johnson’s place
Then it didn’t rain for years and we got bombed by interrest rates
You said “Where are you Daddy? It’s time to play our game
I’ve got squatter all set up you might get General Rain”

“It really was that closeyou’re the one that stopped me son
And you’re tha one that taught me there’s no answer in a gun
Just remember people love you good friends won’t let you down
Look you might have to swallow pride and get a job in town
Just til things come good son you’ve always got a choice
And when you get this letter ring me I’d love to hear your voice.”

Well he cried and laughed and shook his head and put the truck in gear
Shut his eyes and hugged his Dad in a vision that was clear
Dropped the cattle at the yards put the truck away
Filled the troughs as best he couldn and fed his last ten bales of hay
Then he strode towards the homestead shoulders back and head held high
He still knew the road was tough but there was purpose in his eye

He called for his wife and children who’d lived through all his pain
Hugs said more than words he’d come back to them again
They talked of silver linings how good times always followed bad
Then he walked towards the phone picked it up and rang his Dad
And while the kids set up the squatter he hugged his wife again
Then they heard the roll of thunder and smelt the smell of rain

~ Murray “Muzza” Hartin – 21st February 2007
Winchelsea Star – Valewntine’s day [14-02-08]

“Muzza had been asked to pen something for the Salvation Army that can bring awareness to the general public about Rural suicide. He came up with this poem which I think is exceptional” ~ the editor of the Star

FOOTNOTES from me:
On my first romantic Valentines evening my fiancé read this to me. He is a big burly country lad who’s Dad and he had also survived the land and taken jobs in town and by the end I was snivvling and he had tears in his eyes too!

All my life I have wanted to live in the country
“Daddy when can we move and live in the country so Mum can have a cow and I can have a horse and you can be a farmer in a hat?”
I hold our country folk in high revere. They work hard every day – no weekends, no holidays. they worry every day every minute of every day about can they fill their quotas with the best they can produce from what they have. They get paid once a year and pray they can make it stretch across the following year not knowing the exact costs that year will bring.
They produce the food for us to eat.

The country is a tough life it’s hard and it’s frustrating and I feel made all the worse when the farmers see the city folk waltzing about with fat wallets and plenty of food and every mod con and complaining their luxury isnt luxurious enough, affordable enough or accessable enough. The city folk shower twice a day and wash their cars weekly they go to a supermarket and poke their tongues out at apples with a slight bruise or the price of meat being so high “What do those farmers think? That money grows on trees!”

We are the biggest island on the planet
We have the smallest population per capita – 21 million – smaller than the population of tokyo I’m told! But we have NO WATER!
[we do but it is dwindling at a rate faster than we can keep up with so lets leap ahead and work back from there!]
I live as if there is not enough water to survive.
My water company rewards me for being under the usual expected water usage.
My son came home from school 2 years ago
“Hey Mum I know where all the water is!
The teacher taught us about the water cycle and she told us that we make dams to slow down the rivers running straight out to sea.
But she forgot there’s water in loads of other places too
Swimming pools, toilets, hot water systems, airconditioners, car radiators, factory machines, and alll the bottles of water and soft drink in the supermarkets and shops and warehouses all over the place!
If we just put it all back into the cycle then it would rain again!”

In the last 30 years just think of how we have stopped the water from running to the sea.
And how the rate of Rural Suicide and Farms going under have increased
It is a rural depression that will make our food too scarce to waste!
But that’s ok we can import it!
Like Ethiopia does.