A Milestone…..

 

outside my back door

a shingle hangs,

given in love to express a notion,

that a nice lady

and a grumpy olde man

just happen to be

by living here!

so you see

that grumpy olde man

is me!

grumpy and grumpier by the day

they say,

but who are they

I pray?

only friends, romans and country men,

and kids of the tribe,

and siblings of the brood,

and their relations too,

who are getting into the game

so it’s a shame

as that’s one part of me

of this character now.

but my now is a milestone

of a brew

concocted up in the 1940’s,

on 5 August 46 to be precise,

which was nice

for a birthday of this fellow me,

‘twas the beginning of being towards my end

a journey from then to whenever,

is the key

to many milestones in the cauldron pot,

‘twas once

a crying bub on the breast of mum,

a curly headed kid with shitty daks,

a skinny child with boundless energy,

a naughty boy

who liked to tell endless stories and porkie pies,

a teen who peddled a deadly red treddlie for a living,

a nervous youth

who signed the dotted line in 63,

and into the Royal Australian Navy came,

trying to be a disciplined man

in trying to keep in step,

and after the fundamentals done,

in 64 went with hope

and off to sea onto carrier,

first taste of sea and brine,

then a crash at sea near J.B

saw sinking ship and caused havoc

and as a resultant cause

many lives lost that night,

now ashore

and dancing to a different tune and beat,

of training to be a fireman

and when it was my first turn,

to be out on strip,

I saw a crash and burn

never did the perceived conceivable task

when practicing for this ask

of saving life of young lieutenant,

and from the wreckage came,

Naval Board of Inquiry bound

and a Court Marshall was the answer,

for things that went wrong

for mistakes beyond responsibilities,

and the answer for me,

‘twas to be a start of a brand-new career

of cooking up a storm in 65,

for officers and crew,

then off to sea again in 66,

when serving on her majesty’s sweepers

in and around the shores of Borneo waters,

and just in time to be awarded

up to then my only gong,

from there back home again in 67

and another posting back to sea

and ‘up top’ was the go,

and we were Vietnam bound

and by being there you see,

the posties did their thing

with their starvation of our mail,

and on the turnaround in back from sea

a posting to Darwin in the heat ion 69,

and in the meal hall one day,

my love of life appeared

in all her glory,

in order to have a meal

to be served by this curly headed cook,

and as the dust did settle

back down south for a breather,

also, a marriage proposal sought

and in the August 70 we did get hitched

then on the Monday morn after wedding,

back on carrier for many trips

and many days spent at sea,

at that moment it was my time to say ‘farewell’

and what about their sad lack of discipline

never trying to keep their jobs ship shape,

for as a civvie now

in order to become a civvie fella in 72,

then became a battle of mindless idiots

of what made the minds

this new civvie mob click,

‘twas like having a dose of Epsom salts

as I went through many jobs,

and endless applications

trying my best to find at least

a job that fitted my personality

and the traits of this olde sailor man,

when out of the blue it came

a job to fix the odd cable or two

of telephone lines,

in all sorts of weather and extremes,

now became a settled soul

as children graced my scene,

and then for spare moments of my time

joined a section of the Naval Reserves

meeting on a Tuesday night

and in the boozer spent the evening,

and once a year did a shift

back within the naval fleet

and a break away from home and job,

and after another tour of duty done,

went with family

to live in the bush

and then in 95 dive nosed

out of employment,

and onto the sick parade

for the mentally unwell,

as illness rained on my parade,

and now I live here

on the Sunnie Coast

and spend my days

in writing about my past,

and getting grumpier

by the day

and outside my back door

a shingle hangs,

given in love to express a notion,

that a nice lady

and a grumpy olde man

just happen to be

by living here!

and one of them is me.

 

​

 

​

 

​

 

​