The commonwealth in New England is Massachusetts.

Bob Bolton posted the words and tune to "The Pommies' Lament" in 1998, and in that thread, wrote,

"BTW, Pommy is an Australianism for an English person. There is controversy about whether it derives from POME - allegedly "Prisoner Of Mother England" ... shown on immigration records or else from contracting Pomegranate ... in reference to the sunburned faces of new chums."

(Found on a filter search for 'pom'.

Personally, I just blurt out questions about things in a thread IN the thread, because sometimes, context matters. Then again, if there's a subsequent significant digression, oops.