- Jun 1995
Walleah
Press
Currajah
Famous
Reporter
|
|
-
-
- Jonathan Burke McHugo Comes to Town
-
- He sailed up the Tamar, a
potentate
- lolling on a settee on the poop
deck.
- Ever since the Indian sun had
spiced
- his brains too richly he'd had
such fits,
- believing himself royal. His
crew
- would humour him, make due
obeisance.
-
- The whole of Launceston turned
out to watch
- mad Jonathan disembark. It was a
year
- for madness, 1811: King George,
- this "Count and Prince of
the Blood", and Gordon,
- sad crazy Gordon whose pate,
too, had been
- curried for the Empire and who'd
ended up
- Commandant of its foulest
colony,
- Launceston.
-
-
Gordon
greeted Jonathan
- who handed out madeira and
advice
- royally, explained his mission
to reclaim
- the island for the Crown (i.e.
himself),
- persuaded Gordon that he was to
blame
- for all the troubles of the
settlement,
- deserved jail. Gordon agreed.
Power passed
- from madman to madman. Diessent
was drowned
- in sweet wine or darkened by the
shadow
- of the gallows. For a week
Jonathan ruled.
-
- Lieutenant Lyttleton, young,
passionate,
- loyal and sane, freed a
protesting Gordon,
- manhandled Jonathan back to his
brig,
- tied him down and sailed him
through the heads.
- Launceston, some say, recovered.
-
- Tim Thorne has been the Director of the
annual Tasmanian Poetry Festival since its inception in 1985. He is the author of six
collections of poetry and the editor of three anthologies, the Managing Editor of Cornford
Press, Launceston, and a correspondent for Overland.
|