Warmth

Sitting here in Northern Rivers, opening my fan,
I read that it’s even hotter in Perth where my old aunt
remembers little now, her days drifting by at a cruise.

She is fed and taken care of, as she was on those cruise
ships, where at each port she collected a fancy fan –
the hand-held kind. She had human fans too, my aunt

and still has. She is simply, always, my favourite aunt
who rescued me from a cold household, taught me to cruise
through life with kindness and laughter. I spread out my fan,

my treasured fan, which my aunt once found on a cruise.


18/1/10