Five Poems by Julia Vaughan

                     

 

                        Colin

 

It’s Christmas time

Or Father’s Day

Or any day at all

 

Father’s pain

Palpable

Profound

 

A hug would heal

A hug would mean the world

 

Years of hurt,               then silence

Kids’ thoughts and love of Dad

 

Poisoned

 

By their Mother’s hate

 

Communications spurned

Rejected or returned

Probably never reaching them

Mother’s atrocious intervention

 

They’ll never know the love that’s theirs

Waiting, and wanting to be given

Theirs to claim

 

They’ll never know the love that’s theirs

The generosity

Laughter and mischievousness

 

Quiet gentleness

Incredible knowledge, talent and love

Of all things cars

electronics and camping

 

Been around “The Block” twice

Probably been staying quite close

Unaware

 

Would so love a letter

A photo of the grandkids

A phone call

A hug

 

If you don’t know your Dad -

Pick up the phone

           

            Road trips

Seven of us

Squashed into the Peugeot 404

station-wagon

With a roof-rack, and a Dabchick on top

Fold up caravan, two Optimists on top

Harare to Zeekoevlei

2500 plus kilometres each way

 

I always sat

Cross legged behind Dad driving

Sleeping bags in the footwell

Car packed to the gunnels

Gran adding her 2 cents worth

To every conversation

2 kids, 2 teens, 3 adults

 

Stopping for petrol

I spied some wool in the window

Oh!  Dad!  Please can I have some?

(Wool at servos?  They all had some!)

Crochet a square.  Keep going.

Around, and around.  Another ball please.

Every colour of the rainbow.

The blanket square grew.

 

Over the Drakensburg

Through carpets of Karoo wild flowers.

Crocheting kept me sane

A calming meditation

Nullifying a sardine can full car.

Big brother’s bullying,

2 little sisters’ bickering.

 

Years later

In our own home

2 little dogs, my husband and I

That much loved odd blanket

Brought a rainbow to the wicker basket bed.

Dogs curled up, warm

Wrapped in my memories

 

Around, and around.  Another ball please.

 

 

I am waiting …   (Acknowledging Bruce Pascoe and his book Dark Emu.)

 

I am waiting

For the colonists’ offspring

To see.

 

See what’s already there.

Been there decades,

hundreds and thousands of years.

 

Brewarrina.  Birrngi-Bream.

Condah.  Tuupuurn-Galaxis.

Bolac.  Smoked eels.

 

Curly Mitchell Grass.

Nodding Greenhoods.

Yam Daisy-Murnong.

 

Budj Bim.

World Heritage.

Right here!

 

Dark Emu.

Read it.

Grasp the future.

 

Don’t wait.

Act.

Thrive.

 

Looking out the window

 

Standing still,

looking out.

 

No clouds to be seen.

Zephyr of a breeze on my cheeks.

 

Blue, blue sky,

azure ocean.

 

A sailboarder’s pink canopy

Floating above yonder dunes.

 

Oval of mown kikuyu.

Olive green shrub perimeter

 

Border Collies rule today.

Joyful exuberant dogs.

 

Charging around

chasing balls.

 

A jogger and a pram pusher,

Weimaraners, Staffies, several Bitzers too.

 

Buzz of small plane overhead.

A kestrel silently hovering.

 

Chop–thwump-chop-thwump…

a helicopter too.

 

Joy in the morning.

Joy in the stillness. 

Metamorphosis

World of change or change the world

The only constant is change

Growth of spirit

Bodies maturing

 

The only constant is change

Volcanoes destroy and build

Bodies maturing

Ideas evolving

 

Volcanoes destroy and build

Cities expanding

Ideas evolving

Science progressing

 

Cities expanding

Hybrids and amalgams

Science progressing

Technology leapfrogging

 

Hybrids and amalgams

Teaching traditional skills

Technology leapfrogging

Holding onto traditional values

 

Teaching traditional skills

Growth of spirit

Holding onto traditional values

World of Change or change the world.  

Julia Vaughan moved to Australia with her husband in 1989, and began writing poetry after attending inspiring Victorian U3A Surf Coast “I just don’t get poetry” classes.  Having poems dotted sparsely across the internet, she dreams of becoming an accomplished poet.  When not dreaming, she can be found walking on the beach with her husband and two Vizsla dogs.

Published poems:-

Woman in Red – Otoliths (01Nov2021); Words are Flowers - Melbourne Culture Corner (01Nov2021); Finding Calm - Writing In A Woman’s Voice (09Feb2022); Sustain Yourself (15Feb2022) and Mondays (27 Jul2022) - Mad Swirl; Petticoat in Mafeking, 70% Cocoa, Gairezi, Feet - Academy of the Heart and Mind (10Jul2022); Community, Lighthouses, Mulberry Wine (02 - 06 Jun2022), The Future (16Jul22), Lost (17Jul2022) - Ariel Chart