My Favourite Helen

First there was Helen of Troy:

the face that launched a thousand ships.

Then there was Helen Mirren

who dazzled with her shapely hips.

 

Then there was Helen Demidenko:

reducing bookish snobs to fools.

But I like Helen Damico

who stupefied the great Bruce Doull.

 

 

 

 

About Damian Balassone

Damian Balassone is a failed half-forward flanker who writes poetry. He is the author of 'Strange Game in a Strange Land'.

Comments

  1. Yvette Wroby says

    Fine work as always

  2. DBalassone says

    Thanks Yvette. Definitely the only time I’ve ever seen Bruce Doull flustered.

  3. Helen Damico is under-appreciated.

  4. E.regnans says

    Thanks D Balassone.
    Seriously my first footy memory.

  5. george smith says

    Interesting story about Helen Mirren, the woman who so mesmerised Australia in 1969, a time when movies about Norman Lindsay models featuring nudity were very thin on the ground. Helen spent an idyllic time on Dunk Isle, the beautiful island off the coast of North Queensland making the movie “Age of Consent”. All the women in the cast and crew wore sarongs, and the men shorts only. They then came back to Townsville NQ, where the townspeople had a reception for them on the docks. All the Townsville ladies wore smart dresses with gloves and hats, and were very scathing of the casual attire of the film crew.

    This was Joh’s Queensland, so women were not allowed in pubs, nor was anyone under the age of 21…

  6. Jake Left says

    Also cost the Tiges a flag, didn’t she?

    Gotta love that!

  7. Phillip Dimitriadis says

    Love it Damo !
    Helen and Bruce, dare I say a meeting of famous bushes.

  8. Punxsa-and-the-rest-of-it Pete says

    Love it too, Damo!

  9. Earl O'Neill says

    Great work, Damo. But ‘fools’ and ‘Doull’?
    I’ve long wanted to write a column in verse, tho likely I’ll play some Coltrane and do it in free verse.
    Which may amount to little more than exchanging full stops for paragraph breaks.

  10. DBalassone says

    Fair point Earl. Doull/Fools is a bit of a stretch, but I reckon you can get away with the ‘s’ after a consonant (but not a vowel). But then again, if Dylan can rhyme January with Buenos Aires, maybe nothing’s off limits. Would love to see your free verse to Coltrane. ‘Ode to Heath Shaw’ Gait’?

  11. Rulebook says

    Damian I was at the g and I get pushed from behind and I am about to turn around and remonstrate and I hear half forward flank and I see Helen I reply thanks mate back on the bus there were folk who were saying hey that’s,Helen Damico we saw her at the crazy horse last night ! ( they were spot on and it certainly was the full,George Bush days ) great stuff

Leave a Comment

*