Six men walking
Beach footpath
Six thirty
Morning
Shorts, caps
Old sports tops
Sun rising behind
Six men walking
Past the oval
(their oval
their home ground)
Past the rotunda
The restaurant
The playground
The bench seats
Bluestone and beach
on one side
Hedges and houses
the other
Two lines
Three across
Friends in formation
Six men walking
They would have been
The best backline in the business
The best slips cordon in the game
Six men playing
Long ago
Six men turning
Into the kiosk corner
Facing the water
Not much talking
But remembering
Remembering
Remembering
A mate
Every morning
Six men walking
For a first-hand description, see The Williamstown Walkers
Vin Maskell 
This is a wonderful piece, Vin. Kudos.
Thanks, my comrade from Canada! But I’m just the conduit. It’s the six men who deserve the kudos.
Ah, right. Understood. In that case, kudos all around! 🙂
And Smokie, of course, wrote the story on the Almanac site. Cheers, Bill!
Good one. And Smokie’s story too.
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
Couldn’t have written the poem without Smokie’s story.
“Remembering
A mate
Every morning”
I suspect there are many men walking every morning, afternoon or evening, remembering a mate.
Indeed. Or a brother….