Homesick

When I was a kid,
I took a job
working the iron ore mines
in far north west Australia

only criminals
or men on the run for other reasons
worked there then

and me
a bourgeois kid
18

my first night in town
I was rescued from serial rapists
the welcoming committee

Dave Mason,
who rescued me
I saw beaten to a bloody pulp
my last night in town
while I was held by the throat
above the ground
to witness

But

While I lived there
in fear and dissent
of values most horrid

I saw the universe.

Just wandered out of the lights
of the concentration camp,
called a workers residence

and looked up
into the clear desert sky.
Stars
like I had never seen before
in that bright black sky
3d
so deep
my knees crumbled
with vertigo,
this planet became tiny
truly
the universe became home to me

Will always be my home.

And leave me ever
homesick.