I brought her,

the big city girl

from the other

side of the earth,

to the banks of

the babbling brook,

pitching our pup tent

whilst soothing her

paranoia by joking

that the milch cows

over the water

were carnivorous,

while the blue sky

turned dark and

the hills disappeared.

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.