Mary Poppins She Wrote

Mary Poppins came into my life

Because she floated daily

Into our loungeroom

The VHS watched and rewound and re-watched

So endlessly 

That the tape eventually died 

There has always been Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane

The toys have always flown into their cupboards with a click

Julie Andrews has always been Mary Poppins 

Years later 

On an excursion for Writing History

A pre-honours class in research and writing

The librarian at the State Library has pulled out a stack of papers 

Random examples of the items held there

The letters of P.L. Travers 

Did you know that the author of the Mary Poppins books,

Upon which the movie was based,

Was an Australian? 

That there were disagreements between the original author and Disney

(Corporation betraying the Writer) 

Graduation, a world trip, heart break, meditation, later

I was running in a park

And found a statue of Mary Poppins

(Unveiled by my aunt!) 

To commemorate that P.L. Travers had lived in Sydney

Just a few blocks from my house 

Another time

Listening to Mornings with Margaret

A fascinating interview with Valerie Lawson

About the biography she has written 

The thought, “I must read that”

Filed away and forgotten 

Later, in London 

Wandering through the library 

And Valerie Lawson’s Mary Poppins She Wrote 

Sitting there on the shelf

And from the woods of Virginia I read

P.L. Travers

Never identified as Australian

Had left and, but for one short visit, never returned

Felt New York was her spiritual home 

Hated the movie 

Never found love

Never found peace

Was eternally searching 

Knowing the postscript is delicious 

And heart-breaking

And joyous 

Where do I fit? 

I’m no P.L. Travers

I haven’t even been published yet

And yet something stirs

Identifies 

And today,

The sky is blue.

The end.