come by chance

on the mainland
it’s easy for me to believe
i’m tasmanian.
people tell me the names of towns
in duplicate, the locals call wagga wagga
" wagga" once to me, they say it twice


so, there’s elong elong, gin gin, woy woy
yeo yeo, nap nap, grong grong & gol gol
cullen bullen
to let me know i’m in new south wales


it’s the same in victoria
drung drung, jil jil, mia mia, wuk wuk
lang lang mitta mitta bang bang
like they’re reminding themselves
of dance steps to pop songs,


or maybe they were weaned too young
here comes the choo choo past the woof woof
& the moo moo. open wide for the yum yum.


so long so long
woopwoop woopwoop


wait till I tell them in tas tas
i’ve learned place names
as a second language

© MML Bliss