Magpie 10 - Lorenzo

trudging
through muddy paddocks
searching
for your headstone.
you
whom I never knew
born in a place no one can trace
died with a name no one recognizes
buried on a boggy flood plain
marked by fragments of faded stone.

in your portrait
you wear your best hat
vest trousers tie.
a Venetian timepiece for you and
one for your son.
a fob watch secured by a chain
a tenuous link to home.
a reminder of the passage of time
and a journey from
a country not yet named.

Maria
in black lace and
a skirt of heavy cotton
hand sewn and hand stitched
stares down the camera.
too hot
for this climate this
brown bone-dry country.
a mantilla of mourning
a portent of things to come.
this life in the antipodes -
enough to kill
your spirit.

it was Maria's idea this portrait
your shoes are working shoes
not shoes for church or studio.

these clues
these remnants of stories
rescued and
half remembered,
guessed at and
glued together like an old photo.
are
all that remains.

on the verge of despair
i find your grave,
headstone prone
in six large pieces
washed by 100 years of
Richmond River floods.
the letters no longer
marked by metal.

i run my fingers over marble
and
trace your name


Click on this image for more stories and writing on Magpie Tales