The four-storey office,
450 St Kilda Rd
where I once worked
now a big hole
Big yellow machinery
scraping more out
Muted sounds of gouge
from behind double-glazed windows
in the Blackman Hotel next door
Six months maybe
My first full-time job
after dropping out of uni
1976, pre-punk, Big Mal in power
punchcards, flexitime, everyone
accorded a numbered class level
known or to be learned
We base-grade clerks, all fifteen
of us, dogs-balls standouts
Files, batches, phone, desk,
processing time. Time, always time
except Friday drinks, Social Club
Someone tapped a keg, 20c a glass
one floor below stratified desks,
loosened ties, toothy smiles
All gouged away
down the memory hole
Let's drive to Perth, Denise
I remember imploring
a plump, lisping, earnest
assessor one Friday
Now right now let's
not clock back on
ever
But we didn't, not then
not ever. Denise married Peter,
made clerk class four
I went back to uni, taught,
strode class-free classrooms
Sidestepped the hole
bw
27.12.16
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