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Max Did you happen to see Philip Larkin with a pet toad there? Grin Dave 2008/10/1 Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>: > > Cemetery Road > > > Off Yarra Street, turn right > (mind the oncoming traffic) > > and the first three or four houses, > new, on the left all look desirable: > > fresh, elegant, at home already > among the sun-glinting eucalypts. > > The second is still for sale - > couldn't we downsize here? > > Further from town, fewer rooms, > affordable, livable. Roses; quiet. > > But who wants to live on Cemetery Road? > After the houses there's that open space, > > parcelled out in graves and grave-sites. > Not far to go when the time comes. > > The ultimate in downsizing. > Observe the waiting plastic frames: > > piled, each a little larger than a grave: > once the grave is dug you don't want it filling with rain. > > I sense my pallbearers' black shoes, polished > that morning, sinking in soft clay at my grave's edge, > > the awkwardness with ropes, the tilting > and lowering, settling down there, now > > and forever. The muddied shoes step back > discreetly. Rose petals flutter on my lid. > > Wednesday 1 October 2008 > > Max Richards, Doncaster, Victoria > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------ > This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au > -- David Bircumshaw Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/ The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk