My old infant
school has been
razed, because
the baby boom
subsided. Under the
neo-liberal reaction,
the playground
was sub-divided,
where we used
to plonk four
school bag soccer
goal posts; I played
full back, as I did
for the School on
the weekend. We
were an indifferent
team, because the
beautiful game was
a supplementary
football code to the
local religion of
Aussie Rules with
its district gods
who walked
amongst us
on working days
and ruled Winter
hearts and minds.
As the un-silted Cam
flowed nearby, I
have always claimed
a Cambridge education.
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.
