On Board Commissar Rommel
My Nana tells the story of her parents
on board the ship Commissar Rommel
from Poland to Australia,
of living on eggs, herring and cabbage
and sleeping in makeshift bunks,
of the drops of liquid her mother felt
on her face. She had dreamt of morning dew,
woke to discover that a child had wet the bed
in the bunk above.
She always said it did wonders for her complexion.