A tale slowly goring told well, Max. Instant nostalgia a neat concept.
Doug
On Jul 23, 2014, at 4:51 AM, [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This is a nice gentle poem but with a common theme, it happens to all
> of us that something we are fond of and used to suddenly disappears and
> we never really know why.
>
> JG.
>
>> ----Original Message----
>> From:
> [log in to unmask]
>> Date: 23/07/2014 1:50
>> To: <[log in to unmask]
> AC.UK>
>> Subj: 'The Lost Cafe'
>>
>> The Lost Cafe
>>
>
>> Nostalgic already for something
>> lost just a few months ago,
>> that’s
> me, pining for an hour or so
>>
>> back on the wide verandah
>> of the
> Fawkner Park tennis
>> pavilion - ‘Cafe Fawkner’
>>
>> says its faded
> awning - lately,
>> but no longer, Sistas Cafe.
>> Admirable both, the
> sisters,
>>
>> tall slim and smiling. Which was which
>> I never learned,
> even while
>> ordering one of the toasties
>>
>> they’d named after
> themselves.
>> What were those names again? -
>> something East European.
>
>>
>> One had a son called Harley -
>> his Dad no doubt a bikie.
>> When not
> at kindergarten
>>
>> at the north edge of the pavilion
>> he’d sit at a
> corner table, quiet
>> with paper and coloured pens.
>>
>> I’d leash my dog
> by the best
>> verandah possie, pay for coffee
>> and toastie, join the
> dog; together
>>
>> we’d survey the park’s westward
>> prospect - high-
> fenced tennis courts
>> often the scene of coaching -
>>
>> the younger the
> player the wilder
>> the hits. (Balls fell where later my dog
>> lurched
> and gripped his take-home gift.)
>>
>> My snack and drink would arrive,
>
>> with one of those brilliant smiles.
>> Soon I’d feel the benefit
>>
>> in
> mouth, stomach, and caffeine-
>> roused brain - the kids’ tennis
>> seemed
> somehow improved.
>>
>> Beyond, through the grand trees,
>> I’d glimpse my
> new home,
>> one of those old flats I like
>>
>> to tell you about. ‘Kia
> Ora’! -
>> Maori for hello and welcome -
>> here in Melbourne because
>>
>
>> the cordial-factory tycoon
>> wanted flats for his staff.
>> Art deco? -
> ‘Streamline moderne’,
>>
>> not bad for the 1930s!
>> Pity about the office
> blocks
>> on either side. My vantage point
>>
>> on the sisters’ verandah
> put
>> all in green perspective.
>> Good to spend time here most days.
>>
>
>> Till one morning - it’s locked!
>> Next, reopened - without food,
>> just
> coffee - sold me by a woman
>>
>> neither slim nor tall nor smiling.
>> The
> sisters had done a bunk.
>> Well, an hour on the verandah
>>
>> isn’t what
> it was. I’ve changed
>> my routine. Dog and I march
>> briskly past,
> holding ourselves in.
>>
>> Elsewhere, without me, Harley may
>> continue
> his colouring-in.
>> Coffee and eponymous toasties -
>>
>> shared privately
> by the lovely sisters.
>
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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