The Dark Stranger

  • Year: 1967
The Dark Stranger
Brisbane river, Kangaroo Point and New Farm, ca 1907 (SLQ image)

by Paula Fitzgerald   

Who can it be who walks by the river?
Walks by the river at close of the day?
He does not speak, but I hear a voice calling,
Calling the seagulls from far, far away.
 
Who can it be who walks by the river?
His silver-dark footprints are beckoning ahead;
They lead me to sorrow for I am lamenting
The ones who have gone and the tears they have shed.
 
Who can it be who walks by the river?
The Didgeridoo is breaking my heart.
I must be going, and leave all the shimmer-
The glitter of neons of which I am part.
 
Who can be calling me down to the river?
For I hear someone crying and sobbing alone,
Faintly a shadow is rippling the water,
Ripping the water before it is gone.
 

 Paula Fitzgerald (1967)

 

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