Maurice Corlett
I am a Viking.
There's no doubt about it as
when I was young I had
blonde hair and blue eyes
now I am grey but the eyes
the eyes have stayed blue
like my father’s hair that
was fair until the end.
I know that I am a Viking
because my long dead grandfather
came from the Isle Of Man - a small
island in the middle of the Irish Sea -
apparently he died young with TB
and used to sit out the back in a
revolving chair so that he
could follow the sun. He had
run away to sea because he
didn’t get on with his step-father
and served all his time in the
Royal Navy where he was
infected by the disease that killed him
when his son was only a lad who
had to help bring up the family that
existed on a government pension
because the navy wouldn’t grant
him one. But they made it through.
I am a Viking because I saw dad
who has been dead for ages
in the chair at Renee’s when I
was reading her book on norse
mythology and how Thor had slain
the dragon with his mighty hammer
that reminded me of the one that I
have in the shed that I put a new
handle on that is now handy for
anything that needs bashing.
I am a Viking as I like looking out
from the Australian shore and wish that
I was floating while boating on the sea.
Maurice Corlett was born and raised on the Sussex coast of England. This is a locale that has inspired some of his early work. Aged 18 he traveled in Europe, working for a time in
Gibraltar, near Spain. At age 20 he journeyed Overland to Australia with his mate, Michael ‘Mick’ Booker. When they arrived in Sydney they stayed in El Dorado Lodge where he met Lynette Johnstone. As man and wife they toured Europe in a delivery van. Coming back to Australia expecting their first child. And the rest as they say is history.
Photo by Terra Roro on Unsplash