After a number of readings, I still find myself admiring the second line of your poem: "next week, my wife bought". Its contradiction of linear time if one isolates it from the syntax of your first sentence prepares us for your forthcoming speculation on your namesake's fate if he was transported to 2010.
Barry
On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 16:59:27 +0800, andrew burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Because we're leaving the city
>next week, my wife bought
>a GPS to find our way. As the till
>rang up our purchase, I thought
>of Robert O'Hara Burke dieing at
>dried-up Cooper's Creek, unable to get
>back to what passed for civilisation
>in Terra Australis 1860.
>Now we read *Instructions To Begin*
>at our pinewood kitchen table
>instead of a sad 'Sorry' note
>stuck in a tree, at a camp
>recently deserted, our civilised route
>spelt out by a prerecorded voice -
>*Turn left ... Take the third exit ...*
>It could've been handy for Burke
>back then when there were
>no highways, no roadside diners.
>
>*
>*
>A little history for you:*
>
>2010 is the 150th anniversary of the *Burke & Wills Expedition*. The
>expedition was originally called the * Victorian Exploring Expedition* and
>its aim was to cross the continent of Australia from Melbourne on the south
>coast to the north coast, which at the time was uninhabited by the migaloo
>(white-fella). No one had done this before, and to the Victorian colonists
>the centre of the continent was unknown, unmapped and unexplored.
>The expedition was organised by the Royal Society of
>Victoria<http://www.burkeandwills.net.au/Royal_Society/Royal_Society_of_Victoria.htm>and
>it became the first to cross the continent. Three men traveled 5,000
>kilometres from Melbourne to the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria and then
>back to the Dep�t Camp at Cooper Creek. Seven men died in the attempt,
>including the leader, Robert O'Hara Burke and the third in command William
>John Wills. Only one man, John King, survived to return to Melbourne.
>
>PS: It is anachronistic to call it Terra Australis in 1860, but it sounds
>good!
>
>Andrew
>http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
>'Mother Waits for Father Late' republished available at
>http://www.picaropress.com/
>http://www.qlrs.com/poem.asp?id=766
>http://frankshome.org/AndrewBurke.html
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