AustLit

Author's note: This poem was written after reading about a youth called Mindum, who was put on Rottnest Island prison for leaving his indentured laboring job. He and another man escaped and reached the mainland where he stole a horse and rode to Northam, some distance away. There he stole a second horse, a prized racehorse, which he rode all the way home to near Narrogin. All of this never having ridden a horse before. He died about 1936 of pneumonia. The youth Lorris is just a figment of my imagination, although I daresay you might find him out there somewhere. This poem was written in Melbourne at the Melbourne Workers Theatre.