Max youre slowly accumulating a long-look -back memoir in verse, here. This is a fine addition to it...
Doug
On 2013-01-16, at 1:20 AM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Uncle Jim
>
> and his brothers came home
> from the world and its War,
>
> Jim without visible wounds
> but odder than before.
>
> His time in uniform away
> had taken in Gallipoli -
>
> about which this nephew
> never heard him say
>
> a single word - long after,
> not even Anzac Day.
>
> He watched his brothers court
> and marry, farm and prosper,
>
> bring up sons for the next war
> in which they duly fought.
>
> Enough for him to till
> just one acre, flood-plain soil,
>
> watching rain, sun and his labour
> produce the food he needed,
>
> rolling his own cigarette, seated
> on the plank step of a two room shed
>
> he called his whare - [pronounced whorry]
> his hut in Maori -
>
> a language he did not speak
> but respected as local,
>
> though the local Maori
> were seldom seen today -
>
> maybe an old woman with tattooed chin
> glimpsed on the edge of town.
>
> It was all white man's country
> now - stop banks tamed
>
> the Tutaekuri - mainly
> for grazing sheep - Maori
>
> shearers were good value,
> strong and fast also in Rugby.
>
> Jim's world extended now
> as far as he could bike through
>
> in half a day, biking home
> for a solitary evening meal
>
> of his own potatoes, maybe veal
> from his friend the butcher.
>
> Neighbours were few but kindly.
> Life was serene - only
>
> his sisters were annoying
> when they said it's bad to be alone.
>
> His youngest nephew, I'd wonder
> would he ever ask me inside? would
>
> his dog come out from under
> the whare where it took its food?
>
> 'What name did my sister Kay give you?'
> he'd always ask, saying 'Max!
>
> what sort of name is that? Turkish?'
> (She'd told me it was Scottish.)
>
> 'Well, I'm calling you Peter -
> is that all right? Dogs are called Max.'
>
> Whistling, calling 'Rex,
> come and say hello to Peter.'
>
Douglas Barbour
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http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
Latest books:
Continuations & Continuations 2 (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=962
Wednesdays'
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
Swept snow, Li Po,
by dawn’s 40-watt moon
to the road that hies to office
away from home.
Lorine Niedecker
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