Polar Fever

[Stephen Whiteside]

Polar Fever

I must do down to the Pole again, to that land of southern gales,
And the Weddell seals, and the leopard seals, and the minke and killer whales;
To the wind-whipped shell of Mawson's Hut, perched on the rock and ice;
To you it might seem like a barren waste, but to me it's paradise.

I must go down to the Pole again, to that world of endless light,
Where the sun shines as bright as it does in the day through the deepest depths of the night;
Where the skuas squawk, and the penguins flap, and occasionally come a cropper;
Perhaps I might even see Dick Smith in his cheerful little red chopper.

I must go down to the Pole again, to view the Southern Aurora.
I must get away from the sporting page, where my team doesn't trouble the scorer;
And all I ask is some time alone for some reading and writing and thinking;
And not to get stuck in a metal box with some bearded blokes and their drinking!

Stephen Whiteside 28.03.2013

[Neville Briggs]

Good poem. But I have no desire to go to the Antarctic.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Good one Stephen