Very soon after hearing of Russell Evans having departed, I went for a walk and these words came to me… Rainbow photo courtesy of Lady N: one of Nature’s means of signalling, you could say.
THE FLAG MAN
It is time to salute the Flag Man.
His passion was for the flags of nations;
He amused, intrigued, not uncommonly baffled us
With his colourful repertoire: every time we passed Lower Mullock
We always looked up the pole top,
To see what might be fluttering there.
In this moment of reflection, though, perhaps the Code Flags
Can better help to tell his story…
Whenever you met him, here was not a man to avoid conversation.
He would not, E, alter course to starboard or, I, to port:
He, K, desired to communicate.
Himself, I never knew him give any orders;
But then I never knew him as a batchelor:
Long before we first met he had signalled G, I require a pilot
And his success was subsequently confirmed by
H, I have a pilot on board.
I understand that on rare occasions his better half might command
X: Stop carrying out your intentions and watch for my signals, or
L: Stop instantly;
In either case the best advice for him was probably T, Keep Clear
Rather than find himself accused of Y, dragging his anchor
Or having to admit that, Z, he required a tug.
Of course recently, poor fellow,
He realised that, red flag B, he was carrying a dangerous cargo;
And although, W, he requested medical assistance,
With the passing of the weeks, that red flag persisted:
The doctors with all regret hoisted U, You Are Standing Into Danger.
For the first time in his life he wished that,
As regarded the passage of time,
He could fly S, telling us his engines were going astern…
So, just for a moment, his halyards showed M, My engines are stopped;
But now that flag’s replaced by P, Ready to sail…
And let us guess where to:
Russell, admittedly far too soon,
You are going on ahead of us to another peninsula –
Some other sea-surrounded, marsh-misted,
Brack-meandered bird-dawned valley.
And we’ll always look to see your mast,
Muse about what ensign you might have flown today;
And whenever we see flags, wherever,
Even children’s paper banners proud above sandcastles,
You will have our thoughts…
So let us all together hoist U above W,
To wish you a pleasant voyage.
