Message In A Bottle Poem by Francis Duggan

The magpie larks in the mid morning calling
And sun and wind promise a balmy day
And old Fred with his blue heeler out walking
The shingled shore along the sunlit bay.

From amongst the shingle he picks up a bottle
A brown corked bottle washed up in the tide
He opened it to find page of note paper
Neatly folded with message scrawled inside.

The message read 'Dear Fred I truly love you
And I'll always love you as my true soul mate
I know the waves will bring this message to you
Sealed with a kiss from your beloved Kate'.

The letter in black ink was clearly dated
July the twentieth nineteen forty two
A message from his dark haired blue eyed Katie
In all his years the greatest love he knew.

She must have thrown the bottle in at Sydney
Whilst he fought in the trenches far away
In hope by chance it might reach him in Europe
But message in a bottle went astray.

His darling Kate was that sort of a woman
She had the positive approach to life
His love for her sustained him in the trenches
The dream that one day she would be his wife.

He returned to Sydney when the war was over
He went to Kate's house but she was not there
Her tearful mother told him of her daughter
She's in the cemetery 'life seems unfair'.

In her letters to him she had not mentioned of her illness
As she did not want to grieve him with heartache
She knew how hard life must be in the trenches
So she kept it from him only for his sake.

Message in a bottle on beach in South Australia
Found by the one 'twas meant for just by chance
Left by the tide after years of sea travel
Who said there's no such thing as circumstance? .

At mid morning the magpie larks were calling
And sun and wind gave promise of nice day
When old Fred found his message in the bottle
On shingle as he walked beside the bay.