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.