Tasmania, North-West Coast.
Down here there’s
a kick in the sun;
ultraviolet
circumpolar
sun light burns
on the cheeks
and the nape
of the neck,
ardently belying
the mild, lambent
light and salt
sea breezes.
The coastal
road hugs
the littoral’s
millennial footpaths,
as we drive
ever closer
to revisit
origins. Gone
the infrastructures
of yesteryear, we
pass by the sites
of our yesterdays.
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. He now lives in Adelaide again, and visits Tasmanian family, friends, colleagues, libraries and archives annually. His next project is a co-authored life of Depression era Premier Albert Ogilvie.
