The Traveller - Ros Willard

Father was always an adventurer.
As a boy he journeyed in his imagination
to Africa.
Paddling across Penrose Lake
on the raft he had made
he was Burton or Speke,
Stanley or Livingstone,
searching for the source of the Nile.

As a young man
he climbed the Ruwenzori Mountains,
cycled from Izmir to Istanbul,
rode a golden Palamino across the Pyrenees.

In middle age
he cruised on luxury liners
to Antigua, Barbados, Mauritius,
travelled on the Patagonia Express,
the Deccan Queen, the Rocky Mountaineer,
painted watercolours
in Hong Kong, Honshu, Honolulu.

In old age
he wandered the streets,
bare-foot in the snow,
trying to find his way home.

Ros Willard