Here’s Maggie at three
With her family and a friend
Mum has forgotten who
Why so pensive, Maggie?
There’s my hanky in my pinny pocket
How well we match
There’s mum with her pearls and cardie
And slippers?
I must ask why before it’s too late
Why do you look so tired Dad?
Oh, it’s too late
And there’s baby brother in a dress
How jolly he looks, and White
Soon we will be leaving these sad sepia streets
‘We’re going to Australia,’ Dad said
‘Where’s Australia?’ said Mum
And we will live
In a small country town
With two pubs, one doctor
A factory and a footy team
We’ll take a ship across the sea
Where nasty clowns wait at the equator
To paint me with ice-cream
Where my brother will walk the decks
Slapping his hands together
Barking like a seal, ‘Ow, ow, ow’
And Dad will get sick from overeating
And Mum will cry for her mother
And I shall tell their stories …
Words leave my brain and ping on the page
Like my daughter’s yellow gumboots stomping in a puddle
Other times, they flutter down like dead moth’s wings
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