The watery rays of the Autumn sun
Felt beautifully warm on my back.
I sit in Joy”s vege patch shelling peas,
Enjoying the taste when a flashback
Took me to a very different time,
Nnineteen-sixty, my thoughts to unpack.
Seventeen and finished school, holidays
Driving trucks, carting peas-on-the-vine
To the Dewcrisp Cannery at Scottsdale.
Driving along the cut and raked lines
Of peas, beginning in the predawn light,
Paddock by paddock wherever assigned.
Two men at the back of the tray forking
Peas from the loader to a third person
Who placed each forkful with precision
Bill Edmunds 