The Neglected Cemetery – by Janet Wells

Old Kanowna Cemetery

Riding down a rutted track
In climate hot and harsh,
The townships just a few miles back
Along the salty marsh;
Its gardens full of flowering trees,
Its fences bougainvillea strewn,
Its roadside curbs of colored stone
By local tradesmen hewn.

Where people live in tidy homes,
The single storied kind,
And parks and greens and gardens,
With pine logs are timbered lined.
With grassy reservations
Down the centre of the street
Give the tourists good impressions
Of a town that’s clean and neat.

Yet riding down this rutted track
The town left far behind,
A cared for look it seems to lack,
No curbstones here you’ll find.
No bitumen the road to seal
To make the going smooth,
No grassy lawns where mourners kneel,
Nor flowers their grief to soothe.

No concrete path to lead the way,
No wrought iron swinging gate,
No shady trees where people pray
For those they’ve lost of late.
No caretaker to tend the grounds,
Nor sprinklers will you find;
One hardly sees the covered mounds,
Yet no one seems to mind.

But in this lonely unkempt spot,
This patch of scruffy land,
Lies all the history we have got
Beneath this burning sand.
Here lie men who made this town,
Our local pioneers,
Yes, some of them of small renown,
But others great in bygone years.

Here lie men and women
who struggled all their lives,
Here lie beloved husbands
Here lie courageous wives;
Here laid to rest with many a tear
Their sons and daughters long since past,
Who battled hard on yesteryear
Before their lives they lost.

Yet now we live in easier times,
With luxury our lives are filled,
Must we still commit these crimes,
On those poor soles the country’s killed,
Some graves aren’t even numbered,
They bear no mark or cross,
And now the towns encumbered
With a graveyard almost lost

All that I would wish to ask
Is that we look ahead
It isn’t such a mighty task
To tend with care our Dead!

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Moya Sharp

Owner at Outback Family History

My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.

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