I like the way the story ends, Bill (but wonder if it reads a bit too much like a story). Some neat turns along the way, though…
‘
Doug
On Apr 29, 2014, at 3:34 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Lamb chops
>
> Lambs lap my life. First Leslie:
> Miss Lamb, young, pony-tailed,
> high school teacher of physics.
> (a subject I should have taken)
> At Balwyn Baths she wore
> a red bikini on swimming
> sports day. At Wilson's Prom
> she led form six study campers
> to the peak of windy Mt Oberon.
>
> Next, gruff bespectacled Ted Lamb
> a Class 9 federal public servant,
> interrogated me when he learned
> I was to be a member of his tertiary
> education assistance team while
> still having an outstanding student
> overpayment. Are you serious about
> this work? Yes. Well that, he rasped,
> will come out of your first pay cheque.
>
> Six months later, one postcode away,
> son of Lamb, Andrew, would snot me
> with a left right combination Yarraside
> post Bureau of Stats Booze Cruise.
> Why? I had ripped, daintily, I thought,
> but yes, deliberately, the front pocket
> of the Neat and Trim blue uniform
> of Bev Lamb, his clerical wife.
> While she was yet in it.
>
> I was merely illustrating its torn-ness,
> the uniform to me the office
> equivalent of overalls. But Andy,
> with a cruise afternoon of ales
> in him, saw an assault and launched
> his fistic barrage. Hands dragged me
> away from the Lamb fury as I tried
> vainly to explain. My first and only
> black eye took a week to heal.
>
> Robert Lamb, a different kind
> of enforcer, a smiling killer in a grey
> suit, wheel-in school principal, curer
> of alleged staff underachievement,
> entered lamb-like enough, consulted
> individually and collectively, before
> granting us what we seemed to want.
> Certainty. Robert ripped into a benign
> Asian girl for being out of uniform.
>
> Reduced her to tears. Then called her
> into his office when apprised of his
> overreaction. Apologised and asked
> about her photographic ambitions.
> Pulled a heckler out from assembly
> and summarily expelled him. Insisted
> all stand when he entered a room.
> And he entered all rooms. Systematically.
> To this Lamb I tendered my resignation.
>
> bw
> 30.4.14
>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation 2 (UofAPress).
Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
Something else is out there
godamnit
And I want to hear it
C.D.Wright
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