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just in from John Allison ex-Chch now of Kalorama nr Mt Dandenong best from Max Begin forwarded message: > From: John Allison <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: My First Poem in Seven Years > Date: 8 September 2013 3:32:27 PM AEST > To: Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> > > Prostate Cancer > > > Fifteen. Just fifteen. So young to be > > wielding that double-barrelled shotgun > > in the ox-bow marshes > > > with my later-to-be-drowned > > best friend… The morning sunlight gleamed > > bright as brass and all the ducks > > > were flying high. Dis-spirited, > > we turned for home. Along the stop-bank > > squatted on a bare willow > > > branch, a kingfisher > > in blue iridescent glory, its black-beaded > > eye transfixing anything > > > that moved below in the slack backwater… > > The shotgun came too easily > > up to the shoulder > > > and those shining brilliancies > > tumbled to the ground and lay quivering > > in shattered light. Only I laughed. > > > And did not weep about it until > > twenty years later, seeing youthful Parsifal > > shoot down the swan. > > > Ah, the lessons come so slowly. > > More years have passed and gone and now > > I am the ailing Fisher King: > > > at night the wound aches > > but know it’s not the body that is sore… > > My friend is looking at me still. > > > 31 August 2013 > > > > -- > Visit John Allison's website http://www.johnallison.com.au for information about his Consultancy Service. You will also find free downloads of his journals, articles and lecture transcripts, as well as some of his literary works, both poetry and prose.