Day 8 – Just A Friendly Egg In A Boxful – When Bushfires Destroy, Community Builds & Draws Closer
In Australia, we can have devastating bushfires in one part of the country and horrendous flooding in another, as happened yet again, January 2026.
So this poem is dedicated to all who have suffered such horrendous losses in recent Victorian bushfires, but it includes all who suffer natural disasters everywhere. The man with the eggs, well, he was a farmer seen on a TV News broadcast about the devastation in Harcourt Victoria.
“I love a Sunburnt Country”, Dorothea wrote,
her famous poem learned by many generations.
A Sunburnt country, but not a Fire burnt country,
decimated by a monster that claims everything in its path.
Facing it, you can so easily feel the end of the world
is more than nigh – we are in it.
Yet as terrible as it is, so many lives lost and so much destruction,
the human spirit can and will survive, and that is a human miracle.
An embattled man, sweat, grime, dirt and smoke on his face,
walks into the gathering of disaster veterans – young, old,
men, women, children, dogs and even a cat, where
everyone has lost dearly, loved ones,
homes, cattle, pets, crops, memories.
He walks in where cups of tea and coffee,
sandwiches and company are to be found.
Tears close to his eyes as he carries a box of eggs.
He’s lost his livelihood, the work of his lifetime,
but somehow salvaged his chicken coop and the chickens
true to form, laid eggs.
So each person who partakes of his gift will find a friendly egg,
a symbol of love and comfort.
A friendly egg in a box full,
and he who brought them will savour something precious from his loss
Despite everything he can share
from what little he has and as we does
he feels part of the whole, like one egg in a box full,
a valued gift to a community he loves and loves him.
Together, we can.
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