Bon Tides

 for Duck

When it one day turns out the storybooks end
it matters
how they were written.

Father Christmas, for instance –
the real one –
has plum belly, sparkler eyes,
cherry nose and shouts you
merry mornings,
brews his own, and
lives down the street.
Has pet kangaroos
that could pull a sled,
prefers travelling by tractor.
Writes himself into
the dust of your first two-wheeler,
the guardianships of your childhood,
and later, on your cheek.

Doesn’t live forever.

You hear him from pine-gone
long after the last page,
and you can almost hear him belly-laugh
when you think of him
an angel: irreverent, flush-cheeked,
bearing bon tides and beer.

Not many characters
are that well scribed. When the book closes
and covers with dust, you still see his light
at the windows, the way you did in childhood;
a beacon, like a merry inuksuk
on your way home.
You still think (often) to wish him bon tides,
wherever his tractor and his jolly heart have flown.

Linda Kohler lives in Adelaide but grew up on a fruit block outside of Renmark. Her poetry has been published in various Australian journals and anthologies, including previous contributions to InDaily’s Poet’s Corner. She has been a highly commended applicant for the Australian Society of Authors Poetry Mentorship Program, a waitress, a television scriptwriter, a proof reader and teacher. Her inspiration comes from the natural world and the beauty of the human spirit. Her work-in-progress collection, ‘Home Towns’, is in its final stages of compilation

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.