Google Earth
(globetrotting without jetlag)
1
As the hawk sees it
or the helmeted airmanı,
thus young Auden imaged
his England, country of his
where no one was wellı.
As the astronaut sees it
or the satellite circling,
now all Earth shows itself
imaged on our computer screens.
Now no need for imagination.
2
Where would you like to hover today?
Start at our home suburb, zoom down and in:
thatıs our red roof, tiny garden, neighboursı pools
snapped not this week (uncertain weather),
but recently enough the lake looks low.
Zoom back up, weıre off overseas, blue
Tasman, curving coast of my old country,
down over Hargest Terrace, Owairaka.
Which house was Dadıs and Mumıs?
Number seven, opposite the lane.
Modest, spartan, pathetic, cramping,
diagram of mother-love and father-shy.
Escape once was slow, if airborne.
Heathrow here I come again.
In Hyde Park by one of those trees
jetlag first hit (no-one had warned me).
Edinburgh youıre so elegant, even from above.
Here I walked, there was my bus stop,
there the libraries. Scotland, where
no one was very well, but a few were angry.
Since I left I see itıs built a bit, lost a lot.
Slagheaps by former coal mines linger.
Is that a synthetic ski-slope on one?
Up and away ... my son says zoom in
on Bondi Beach, you can pick out
every single sunbather. Why, so you can,
and some are very brown, and very bare.
Rude health; anger in short supply.
The surf is very white.
Wednesday 20 February 2008
Max Richards
Doncaster, Victoria
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