My Father's Signature
As I sort unwanted books,
'Arthur C. Richards -
Awakino, 1933' -
his elegant penmanship
on the fly-leaves of old texts,
renews an old pang.
Newly-wed and years before my birth
he taught in the bush, enrolled
extramurally for a B.A...
Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Spenser:
here they are with glosses in his hand
like 'extended metaphor'...
He threw it in. Poetry
he never mentioned to me.
The same year he became
Awakino tennis champ, jumped
the fence to the bowling green
and also won that competition.
This was much mentioned.
Meanwhile his father, Arthur S.,
opposition backbencher,
read Left Book Club books
on Fascism and the other isms.
Labour waited its turn. When
it came they made New Zealanders
'secure from the cradle to the grave'.
Tennis and bowls maintained themselves.
Just for the signature
I'll keep the books, and go on
looking for his 'Tale of a Tub'
and 'Battle of the Books.'
November 2006
Max Richards
Doncaster, Melbourne
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