Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Vale Anne Deveson and her daughter Georgia, December 2016

Sleep, my child
the years, the years
however you count
them as I taught you
to count them
by the moment.

And what were those moments
my child?
A rage to live
a yearning to die

to sleep the sleep
of dreams

Faraway Malaya
or Britain
farther still
this mottled globe
watered with tears

And did you know
two-thirds of it
was water?

She should have been
named that
our misleading Earth
instead.

And now we sleep together
hands stilled
though fingers laced,
stepping through
the true
Terra Nullius, 
our terrors no more.

5 comments:

  1. That is such a beautiful and memorable poem. Very sad to hear this news.

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    1. So tragic. I knew them both - Anne more than Georgia, though it was a long time ago. I met Georgia when she was chair of the Australian Society of Authors and I was on the board. It was a grim time for both, Anne with her encroaching Alzheimer's, Georgia with the time bomb in her head. There have been too many deaths, Susan, too much suffering, but that's the thing.

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  2. A beautiful tribute, Charlotte. Thank you.

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  3. Such sad news, but a most beautiful tribute.

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  4. I'm so sorry to hear this! Thanks for your poem.

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