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.
