Boomerang

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FranktheFrank
Posts: 1983
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 18:07
Location: Between the mountains and the sea

Boomerang

#1 Post by FranktheFrank » 16 Mar 2023, 02:01

' . . . the past is becoming a boomerang
I grow more and more fond of.
I watch it return over and over . . .
'
Bob Bradshaw, Throwing a Boomerang Around, 2023

We’d come home happily drunk
Like two lovers we’d swayed together
Albeit without a kiss.
We often stopped to lean against the Iron Lamp post
Its two arms waiting for a ladder that never came.
It being converted from gas to electricity
And needed no light-up at dusk.
‘I bet, I’d said, I’ll be in Australia before I’m twenty-one.’
Jeff grinned, “A fiver?” he said.
I missed that bet by five weeks but he graciously let me off.
Close enough for a drunken bet.
I came back ten weeks after my 21st carrying
an enormous boomerang made from Blackbutt hardwood — Eucalyptus Pilularis
Jeff stroked it nonchalantly — feeling its beautiful smooth finish
Its colour and the grain, stroking the wood like a lover’s thigh
Not that Jeff had any success with girls or women for that matter.
‘Let’s try it out in the park,’ he suggested.
I had never tried it; afraid I’d lose it over the ship’s side.
Why not.
We stood a hundred yards apart for safety,
My first throw almost killed Jeff,
It had risen about thirty feet in the air
Revolving slowly as if it had a will of its own
As if in thought,
Enjoying the freedom of, to it, the antipodes
Arcing away from Jeff, effortlessly idling
Rising and arcing around
Jeff, looked nervous, adjusted his specs
Started to amble away from the arc
It was behind him now, above and turning to follow him
He started to run, run away from the thing
It seemed to follow him, and started to descend
Surely it had Jeff in its sight
Jeff running now, the damned fool running away in the flight path
Why didn’t he break from the arc
He’d studied applied mechanics, knew about parabolas
Trying to sprint, his long knock-knees
Letting him down, the thing was gaining on him easily
The hard wood spinning with a whoosh
At the last moment Jeff fell to the ground
The boomerang stuck in the earth a good nine inches deep

We had to pull the thing out of the rugby field
Both of us shaken, what if it had taken
off the top of his head. Could I have told
his mother Jeff was dead. 'Mrs Parker, He’s in the park hit
by a flying boomerang

‘Let’s go for a pint?’ said Jeff.
‘Yeah.’
I never threw that bloody thing again.

FranktheFrank
Posts: 1983
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 18:07
Location: Between the mountains and the sea

Re: Boomerang

#2 Post by FranktheFrank » 16 Mar 2023, 02:04

Thanks to Bob for the spark with his fine poem
Throwing a Boomerang Around.

User avatar
Billy
Posts: 1384
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 10:56

Re: Boomerang

#3 Post by Billy » 16 Mar 2023, 03:29

Wow, well-told and a thriller. Love boomerang that has mind of its own.

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Boomerang

#4 Post by BobBradshaw » 16 Mar 2023, 21:56

Well told, flowing narrative. Action, humor. Enjoyed!

Nits: I would cut "pale with fright".

IndianaDP
Posts: 181
Joined: 24 Mar 2018, 16:53

Re: Boomerang

#5 Post by IndianaDP » 26 Mar 2023, 18:22

Sometimes disaster has a name written on it. Glad Jeff lived to face another day. Nicely told tale.

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