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.