By Lynn Elder
To stay or leave? I am torn. My heart and mind are at odds. What is the chance one whispers, of fire reaching us here. The radio crackles. Emergency announcement. "If you have not already left, it is now too late to leave." Decision made.
This poem was included in a collection of poems published in 2021 as High Country Poets highlighting the works of local poets from Mansfield in North East Victoria, Australia. Proceeds from sales of the book go to the Mansfield Secondary College Welfare Fund.
Escape to the High Country... 
Congratulations on having this poem published! This must have been written shortly after the big wildfires last year. Is that correct?
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Our bushfires were late 2019 through to early 2020. While where I lived was impacted by smoke haze and some smaller fires we got off very lightly. But the earlier Black Saturday fires from over 10 years received a lot of media exposure. I have had to face a fire but the thought of it scares me no end.
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This pandemic has ruined my sense of time! The bush fires were 2019?! Where did the time go?
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Very late in the year. The fires in NSW were in the December and in Victoria early January. COVID brain seems to be a common thing these days. So many of us feel like we have lost a big chunk of time.
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