Two poems from the April 4 session of the Aldinga Poetry Group written around the theme of ‘Occupations’:
BEYOND ALL DUTY
‘Home duties’: how banal, how beautiful.
So cold a phrase yet it defined
the enriching life-work
of a generous-hearted mother.
She loved her home so that the duties
it imposed on her were transmuted
into acts of joy or satisfaction
and infused that home with her heart’s warmth.
The bleak official term conveyed
none of her great qualities:
her unselfishness, her humour
her power to heal grief and sadness.
Instead, it cast her as a servant,
working through a dull routine;
just a domestic automaton,
devoid of spirit, wit or passion.
But to her children, looking back
on her long and committed life,
‘homemaker’ not ‘home duties’
best sums up her brilliant career.
Bill Guy, Adelaide, April 2009
JUST ANOTHER JOB
I am a people smuggler.
I see your face wrinkle in disgust,
you recoil as though I am a leper:
you have stamped me with the stereotype.
You view me as a mercenary
sucking money out of misery,
a trafficker in desperate souls,
a profiteer and ugly parasite.
But wait! You call yourself humane;
you support all good causes:
whales…old-growth forests…refugees.
Ah, yes – let’s go back to refugees.
Consider how many thousands
Ffeeing execution or torture
would fail to find their refuge
without the aid of people like me.
Not just now but throughout history:
cotton-field slaves escaping north,
Jews on the run from the Gestapo,
or Kurds hunted by Saddam’s gang.
It’s not refugees who condemn
those who smuggle them to safety;
it’s the politicians and bigots
who want to keep them out.
Sure, the smugglers are getting paid;
they’re doing a job; it keeps them alive.
Sometimes, though, it triggers their death;
no refugee can be a greater victim.
All I ask is you don’t judge me
solely by my occupation.
Though not brave myself, I know
some in my business to be heroes.
Bill Guy, Adelaide, April 2009
