Our Man from Malden

In the year John Glenn orbited the earth

And The Beatles sang Love, Love Me Do

One Lawrence Brendan Fitzpatrick was born

The defining moment of 1962.

Mon and Vin of Clairvoh, Malden

Welcomed yet another boy into the set

After Joseph, Bernard, Michael and Kevin

Katherine, Leonie and Pauline? - not even twinkles yet.

Laurie was a cute and cuddly little tacker

But always up to no good

So they sent him to the Marists in Castlemaine

To straighten him out - if only they could.

Laurie would turn out quirky

Compelled to take the road less travelled

To do things his own distinctive way

And this is how it all unravelled:

Laurie had aquatic aspirations

He ran off to the Navy I hear

Where he specialised in Sonar Detection, Border Protection

And the wholesale consumption of beer.

Ten years he defended Australia

From smugglers and pirates of the ocean

Before turning his back on the shifting sea

And its unrelenting motion.

Finding his way to Albury-Wodonga

He made that “Jewel of South-East Australia” his elective

Where wedding photography drew his eye

And he kept a fine perspective.

His Commercial Club job just wasn't right

So he skipped over to Personnel Employment

Where his bedazzling workmate Colleen

Was a particular enjoyment.

They married in 1996

And in Kiewa found their Shangri-la

Where they welcome visitors with open arms

Who stream in from afar.

Laurie treats each garlic bulb like a pearl

Knows every chook by name

His Dorpers are his pride and joy

And Walter is the same.

Laurie is a paradox, an enigma, a contradiction

His story reads like historical fiction

He is a particularly political fella

With a morbid fascination for Sophie Mirabella.

Laurie has copped sixty years of punches

He’s eaten 21,900 lunches

He’s come to many forks in many roads

And taken them all ~ on hunches!

So with his amazing family, his big heart and Colleen's love

One might say that he'd won the hat trick

But that's only part of the eclectic story

Of Laurence Brendan Fitzpatrick. 

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© Owen Smith, 2022