Two Seniors
(Judith Rodriguez, b.1936, &
Dimitris Tsaloumas, b.1921)
Vigorous poems she wrote -
ditto her body language.
She roused her students -
all can be creative!
New then to her country,
I felt she stood for Australia….
When our summer December
party lagged without
a bottle-opener
she bit off the crown caps
passing round the beer
that might inspire us further.
*
At her house when I met
Australia's great Greek poet,
Dimitris Tsaloumas,
of Leros and Elwood Vic,
though I towered over him,
his eyes burned into me
as if asking was I serious enough?
I hadn't been but might.
His voice was intense, but kind.
*
Hospitalised once
for something dire,
when visited by me
her bed was empty -
she'd absconded
with her drip-feed bottle
to judge some urgent
poetry competition
for the promising young.
*
Celebrating his eightieth
at a large gathering
he'd excused himself from,
she hobbled forward
on her stick to the lectern,
praised him with force
and large gestures -
strode back to her seat
without her stick.
Now he's ninety,
I'm about to make my visit
of homage to his Elwood
address, its Greek-
picture-haunted rooms,
I'll ask: Dimitris,
are you still not only
writing your worlds
but touring Leros on your Vespa?
Max Richards, b.1937
Doncaster Vic
p.s. DT says he now has a four-stroke Vespa, easier for him.
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