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
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