Remembering Roma
"Of course she is NOT allowed in here"
Men
roared the rules, "The Menzies" of Men
The Lounge Bar was off limits
but really,
Did Roma care?
Proxy Weddings and Exotic Love
Indonesian incarceration in WW2
teen childbirth and near death scurvy
beatings, deprivations and assorted atrocities
liberation 1945 a released "survivor"
a realized strong woman a growing son in tow
post war depression, migration, reunited then separation,
new starts, new healing, new yoga, new countries befriended
Roma roamed and loved and lived large
A City Studio Women's Lib and All That Jazz
Pitt Street Roma's Brand of "Bend & Stretch" Opened
The Lady Quite (NOT Quiet) About Town
There were stories to tell
and people to see and
toes to be touched and
New Love To Be Had
The Menzies Men Only Bar held NO Sway.
Breaking conventions if not rules or laws
Roma really held her self well
Roma Blair The Lady Whose Deportment (thanks June Dally Watkins)
She Took No Prisoners, always kind and gracious
She Expected NO Free Favors, always creative and attentive
She was Her Own Woman; took no crap and held her own,
erudite, articulate and ever so worldly
many men melted by her radiant laser soft glow
Roma simply embodied a centred Quiet Thunder
husbands One Two Three and many side lights of IYTA
TV Star and Guiding Light,
a book or two and a diverse selection
dressed up fine, an active life
Her Ordered Pink Coffin a final dance of delight
Long may Roma be remembered
That One Night She Said
"Well Fuck That Shit"
(when The Many Menzies Men Aghast)
tried ever so hard to exclude
The One Woman Who Really
Knew Her Own
Past.