Yep, a moving picture. Andrew
On 19 December 2012 20:56, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> Maxthanks for that glimpse-painful
> P
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Max Richards
> Sent: 19 December 2012 06:10
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: 'Auntie Nell's Pink and White Terraces'
>
> Auntie Nell's Pink and White Terraces
>
>
> Nell, my mother's younger sister,
> was their family's carrier of joy,
>
> laughter bringer,
> brightener of reunions.
>
> Sad then that she was childless -
> the Japanese War
>
> found her young husband Jorgie,
> fresh off his Aussie sheep farm,
>
> in Singapore, so into Changi
> where Aussie and Allied soldiers
>
> suffered, died - in Jorgie's case,
> nearly died. Surviving, returned,
>
> reunited (hadn't she worked
> those war years in Sydney,
>
> seen in the harbour that
> Japanese submarine!)
>
> they farmed again, up
> Armidale way, prospered
>
> due to the Korean War wool boom -
> all those winter uniforms;
>
> retired to the Queensland
> surf coast, the Gold Coast,
>
> a unit near the water,
> bowling club society.
>
> Still she pined for New Zealand,
> sisters, nephews, nieces,
>
> and her early days, Napier
> before the Quake; when asked,
>
> 'What present from there
> might I bring you?' replied:
>
> 'How about the Pink and White
> Terraces? bring me them!'
>
> No one living had seen them -
> Mount Tarawera had erupted,
>
> burying the 'eighth wonder'
> Victorian tourists had trekked to.
>
> But their strange beauty lived on
> in paintings and early photos
>
> coloured like coconut-ice -
> age-old silica formations,
>
> tourists bathing in its warm pools -
> adorning walls in farmsteads
>
> like those of Nell's childhood.
> It took some years, my hunt.
>
> At length, visiting her again,
> widowed now, and 'in care',
>
> I took from their cylinder
> three bright reproductions:
>
> The Terraces, Pink, White,
> and both somehow together.
>
> 'You duffer,' she laughed, 'How
> can I make use of these here?'
>
> There was no wall for them.
> Back they went to Auckland -
>
> 'Here, sister, Nell can't use them.'
> They went into her hall cupboard.
>
> My last visits to Nell lacked laughter:
> 'This is a slow cancer' - I was dumb.
>
> When her will was read, every
> niece and nephew had bequests
>
> but me, something much
> pondered since, wryly.
>
> Nell's bequest to my sister
> she shared between me and her.
>
> Years later, I asked for the Terraces.
> Out they came, cylinder and its
>
> contents ruined by damp,
> obliterated as well as had been
>
> the originals by last
> century's Tarawera eruption.
>
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
'Undercover of Lightness'
http://walleahpress.com.au/recent-publications.html
'Shikibu Shuffle'
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/new-from-aboveground-press-shikibu.html
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