Thanks, Pat. It meandered a lot more before this. Yabbies are like little freshwater crayfish. They nip you in dams but are good bait and can be good eating if you have enough of them. Not freezing here, 33 today, only getting down to 20 overnight. 

Cheers, Bill

> On 29 Nov 2017, at 9:20 pm, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Hi Bill thanks  lots going on here -are yabbies fish? (spellcheck wants tabbies!) liked the finishing on something strong
> 
> Grandpa's rifle.
> poem perhpas meandered a bit some cutting ??
> PS freezing here
> 
> 
> On 28/11/2017 23:22, Bill Wootton wrote:
>> A poem I wrote. few yers back, revisited, reshaped.
>> 
>> Corner of Thunder Street, Bendigo,
>> twisted wire front fence, groany gate,
>> springy Buffalo-grassed front lawn.
>> 
>> Echo-less sound of tin-lid postbox
>> squeaking open, plopping flat shut.
>> Slight give of worn boards on front porch
>> 
>> with first footfall from top brick step.
>> Iron rungs reaching from concrete piers.
>> Grandma Beat's place. Mum's Mum.
>> 
>> After lunch, go outside and play.
>> Brother Dan and I jumping from one
>> post to the other. Making up games
>> 
>> with rules and consequences. Don't
>> be caught on the exposed veranda
>> when a rare passing car aligns with you.
>> 
>> Home pillars the only safe zones.
>> Running the bee gauntlet up lavender path
>> beneath wind-rattling wooden lattice.
>> 
>> Thin water-stained plywood walls bulging.
>> High plate shelf on wall. Framed photos;
>> young Mum’s colourised rosy cheeks.
>> 
>> Aunt Hazel in sepia WAAF uniform.
>> Hovering inside in heat. Gal roof stretching,
>> popping in sun. Unused front lounge room.
>> 
>> Grandma's winter knitting-by-woodstove post,
>> pantry scullery, cutlery dead-clanking on sink,
>> muted by flour bins, Brockhoff biscuit tins.
>> 
>> Fumes from Uncle Rex's Abbots Lager 'soldier',
>> fresh from fridge, opened by feigned accident.
>> Warm-valved tone of walnut veneer radio
>> 
>> through riffling curtained speaker. Spring
>> -loaded back door's ping/clunk. Stretched wire
>> backyard prop clothesline. Sheets billowing
>> 
>> high over Mr Kinsmore's backyard caravan.
>> Long rusty tin shed, powdery dirt floor,
>> spidersome cardboard suitcases. Finding gold
>> 
>> -tipped Black Sobranies. Match scrape, coughing.
>> Full length dark brown leather coat hanging behind
>> external laundry door. Framed, faded portrait
>> 
>> of flowing-cloaked de Valera, hanging skewiff.
>> Bait yabbies corralled in laundry trough overnight,
>> crawling in wet hessian bags filled with pungent
>> 
>> gum leaves. Fishing nets, hooks, corks, spread
>> on back lawn. Disused chookshed with dry,
>> ignitable overhanging potato vine.
>> 
>> Groping in darkness for hiding place
>> of tiny glass jar full of fossicked gold specks
>> in the back of bedroom wardrobe. Grandpa's rifle.
>> 
>> bw
>> 29.11.17