Duck-billed platypus by L. Th. Lehmann

L. Th. Lehmann [1920-2012]
photo: Leo van Velzen 

 

Duck-billed platypus

 

I proposed once Peg, from Geelong,

and was refused,

for a year I still got real tears in my eyes

when I heard 'Waltzing Mathilda'

because I didn't know any other Australian song.

Almost twenty years later

I met a typically

re-emigrated Dutch couple.

Their little son still had a platypus

made of nylon wool, called the plat pussy,

with in the belly a music box

that played 'Waltzing Mathilda'.

(Original title: 'Duck-billed platypus' - from: 'Gedichten 1939-1998', 2000 - Uitgeverij De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam)