Rolph David
The Vanishing of Harold Holt
(A Caution to All Who Swim Alone)
The summer sun bore heavy on the land,A Sunday noon, with sea and sand at hand.
Australia’s leader, strong of limb and heart,
Decided it was time to play his part.
Decided it was time to play his part.
Australia’s leader, strong of limb and heart,
A Sunday noon, with sea and sand at hand.
At Cheviot Beach, he sought the ocean’s pull,
The waters deep, the skies above him full.
With friends ashore, he waded far from view—
Into the waves he vanished—gone, and true.
Did unseen forces snatch him from the foam,
To carry secrets to a distant home?
Was China waiting with a steel-clad boat,
To pull him in, escape his final vote?
Or did he flee, abandon all for love,
To find a softer life unknown above?
They spoke of spies and rumours from the States,
That foreign plots could twist a nation’s fates.
But not a shred of truth could they produce,
No submarine, no lover’s sudden truce.
No knife of rivals keen to seize his crown,
No scheme, no plan to bring a leader down.
Instead, the truth lies hidden in the sea—
A current strong, a swimmer bold, but free.
The ocean, harsh and ever fraught with might,
Had pulled him under, snuffed his final light.
The search was vast, with effort deep and wide,
Yet never found was Harold in the tide.
No trace was left, save questions cold and stark,
And tales of sharks that haunt the ocean dark.
His name now lives in English as a phrase—
“To do a Harold Holt” means "disappear",
"To vanish quickly", "lost without a trace"—
For Harold Holt, no answers will appear.
A man who sought the waves one fateful day,
The currents strong, his fate swept far away.
No plots, no war, no foes with sharpened claws—
Just nature’s hand, in all its ruthless laws.
And so we mark his place in history's tome:
A leader lost, the sea became his tomb.
Who left without a trace, beneath the sun—
A mystery unsolved, his fate undone.
All rights belong to its author. It was published on e-Stories.org by demand of Rolph David.
Published on e-Stories.org on 09/30/2024.
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