Hi Tea in Tully

 

“Come have a cuppa.”

And we'd sit and sip.

Watching the sunbird

build his his nest.

We'd stare out at Joe's vegie patch,

as the cane trains

hauled back and forth

across the paddocks.

 

Wanting each bin to carry away

the shared secrets

that only beaten wives can share;

Knowing the loneliness

of the rejected mother

would fill train after train

never to be fully crushed at the mill.

 

Sometimes we'd just gossip and laugh

pretending we weren't the ones

being gossiped and laughed about,

and say knowingly,

deprecating smiles just visible against the china rim,

“Well at least while they gossip about us, they are leaving others alone.”

 

As the sun disappeared we'd rest our secrets

in the nest in the eaves.

The sunbird giving his last call

as the the Sunlander pulled into the station,

drawing our conversations further from home

out beyond Innisfail and Cairns

but rarely to your birthplace

in Sicily

or mine in Sydney.

 

We'd shared our pain and our sorrow

our happiness and joy

over one cup of  Hi tea.  Marilyn Roberts