Summer, North Scottsdale, Tasmania

After obligingly

feeding the feline,

the expats savour

the Vandemonian

twilight, lingering

like a Tasmanian

farewell, meditating

nostalgic on the

motley bush of

the trailing foothills

of Mount Stronach

at the paddock’s verge,

still in the languid,

balmy summer air.

Dr David Faber is an Australian labour historian and published poet who majored at Somerset Primary School in pirates, wild colonial boys, British monarchy and imperialism. He began writing poetry at Burnie High School. He emigrated to Adelaide in 1977, fell under the spell of a Milanese admirer of Machiavelli, and moved with her to Italy in 1985, where he was a local official of the Partito Comunista Italiano. They now live in Adelaide again, and David Faber visits Tasmanian family, friends, colleagues, libraries and archives annually. His next project is a co-authored life of Depression era Premier Albert Ogilvie.