21. Vacation [100 poems challenge]

21.          Vacation

Pristine lake and rugged mountains
Blood red sun and smoky sky
Sloping tent-site, run-down campground
Mining town, its glories gone.
Ancient kombi jammed with camp gear;
Further filled with Mum and Dad,
My four siblings, me as well, with
Room enough for two Dutch hikers.

10 May 2013 (technically the other side of midnight)

Comments: These are my memories of a holiday around the West Coast with the family in 1981 (?), staying in tents and travelling in the family VW bus. The poem feels as if it should be longer, but all I have are these impressionistic memories of the trip*: staying at Lake St Claire one night with bushfires near Queenstown making ominous atmospheric effects, and a memorably less-than-superlative caravan park where we stayed another night. The hitch-hikers were with us for a few days, and somehow the 9 of us—and all our gear—managed to fit in the vee-dub.

* It was also late at night at the end of a long, busy day when I wrote it, so brevity was clearly a desirable option and I was too tired to be more creative anyway.

Themes to come: 22. Nature; 23. Cat; 24. No Time; 25. Trouble Lurking; 26. Tears

Explanation about the 100 poems challenge here.