Lassù in Cielo

in memoriam Martin Johnston

my first dream of home
from Loughborough U

involves two posts arguing
over a lunch-time stew

remember those post-binge
mid-seventies Glebe mornings—

lantana & sandstone, bits
of Harbour out the window

& the light, intense & blue?
I crawl downstairs & there’s

Martin chopping garlic to
vague, patrician interjections—

“mate, isn’t garlic something
one can over do?”

Martin pauses, mock pedantic—
“Aristotle, Galen, Hippocrates

& all the authorities agree,
garlic, de natura
is not subject to degree!”

then, as if it’s worried him
for years, David Campbell DSO, DFC,

takes another swig of whisky
looks up & says “I see. I see.”