Hi Andrew
It's not actually 'Graylands Hospital for the Insane', though, is it? I
can't remember what it is called but something much more mental
Janet
On 26/03/2008, andrew burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Driving under a daylight moon
> Through an avenue of she-oaks
> Drying their hair in the breeze,
> He measures the bassline
> With his left foot, the right one
> Accelerating out of the corner
> And past the statue of
> Pope John XXIII in the school's
> Sweeping front lawns. Once
> Upon a time he was a student
> Here when the school was all boys
> And parked on the highway. Now
> It is co-ed and squeezed between
> Graylands Hospital for the Insane
> And agistment paddocks for horses.
> The Indian Ocean is over the next wave
> Of suburban homes – brick and tile,
> With trimmed edges and old gums.
> He is thinking of hot sand blowing
> Across his teenage girlfriend's small breasts
> When a garbage truck blocks his way.
> Fuck, now he's going to be late.
> His writing students have their late night
> Ramblings all typed up and ready for him.
> He imagines a truck like the one in front
> With a huge paper shredder on top
> Chewing its way through all the assignments
> He has read, marked and handed back
> To decades of students. A Merc sports
> Speeds across the truck's path so
> a claxon horn startles the suburban quiet.
> That's something to tell them back
> At the depot, about the rich bitch who
> Tried to get the dustman's attention by
> Shoving her chassis in his face …
> He smiles at his own narrative mind:
> Cliché cliché cliché. The truck turns
> Up a side street and he shouts,
> Anchors aweigh, me boys! And plants
> His right foot, tapping with his left to
> Jazz violin like Paganini never played!
> Time and tide wait for no man. When
> he pulls into the leaf-littered yard
> his students barely look up from
> their middle-age flirting. Never
> too late, he muses, and grabs his satchel.
>
>
> ... to be continued hopefully ...
>
>
> --
> Andrew
> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
>
--
Janet Jackson <[log in to unmask]>
www.proximity.webhop.net / www.myspace.com/poetjj
The Line Mine, bulletin board for Perth poetry & spoken word:
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groups.yahoo.com/group/thelinemine
Breastfeeding info & help: www.breastfeeding.asn.au
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