Under the Cedars of Edenhope
[With appreciation for apt phrases to poet women of the early Australian
bush and to Carl Riseley.]
Milicent Humphries pulled her shawl closer as she sat alone
on the porch swing of her Iowa home. She was dreaming of the night, the first
time she had peed in a graveyard. She had been eight years old when her Mum
took her to visit the grave of Grandma Burns near their home in Edenhope,
Victoria.
Of course, Milicent had lived in Australia at the time.
Everybody had called her the diminutive “Mili.” It wasn’t until she was
eighteen that she married a Yank during The War. He had properly, though not
promptly, whisked her away to the United States of America. It had all been
such a great adventure.
