About Me

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Victoria, Australia
I am an author of Young Adult Fiction books. I worked as a teacher in the Pacific Islands for seven years. Whilst in the Solomon Islands I taught PSSC English before the ethnic tension in 2000 forced a change of plans. I love Pacific literature, art and music. You can find me on Facebook at Beth Montgomery Author.

Friday, December 26, 2014

The Sea Chest


(Meditation on Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island)
 
The dead buccaneer's trunk
with salt-encrusted brass hinges
and heavy oak panelling
held a shabby pouch with a few doubloons
guineas and sovereigns  
a chart wrapped in oilskin
showed a magnified dot in the Pacific.
 
The instructions read
behold a tall tree
in the shoulder of the Spyglass

compass bearings east by north east
there lies a sea chest.

Young Hawkins and the crew
searched for Captain Flint's treasure
instead they found
sand-encrusted brass hinges broken
and oak panelling splintered.

B. Montgomery 2014 

 

 

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