(c) Memories
As I look down my
corridor of memories,
I’m pleased to say
I’ve made more friends than enemies,
This is very
surprising as I’ve made many mistakes,
There have been
rifts in the family causing much heartache.
Astonished I am
that I’m now sixty something;
It appears I’m a survivor,
not ripe yet for gazumping!
Two thousand and
twelve marks my diamond jubilee
In Terra Australis,
in terror paralysis, my earliest memory:
I dimly recall watching
the waves and feeling the sea spray,
Six weeks on a migrant
ship, Scotland now so far away.
East from Gibraltar and
across the warm Mediterranean Sea,
Through the Suez Canal,
close to Mesopotamia were we.
Down the tropical Red
Sea to the Gulf of Aden
Left to Sri Lanka then
called Ceylon; we were laden...
With elephants carved
from an ebony tree,
Mother said, “We had
the most amazing pot of tea”.
We went ashore at
Colombo long having been on board,
Soon crossed the
equator, where, King Neptune gave accord!
Then South-East for
many weeks across the Indian Ocean,
To dock in at Fremantle;
there was much emotion.
Australia at last, yet
so far still to go, when do we alight?
Like an albatross in
flight, we spanned the Great Australian Bight.
And put in at Melbourne
and met some strange relations,
But we were bound for
Sydney town: our penultimate destination.
From there we travelled
to the Blue Mountains, finally relief.
Arriving in July fifty
two, the Fahrenheit was too: a new home in Blackheath.
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