#168 Kevin Brophy 'The steps it takes'

#168 ‘The steps it takes’

The young men grow into their football jumpers.

They move around the town in groups all day,

they know which trees are poisonous when shaved,

where the strongest clubs can be made,

how to trap corellas, crows, wild budgerigars,

which boomerang can break an emu’s leg.

They’ll hunt the cigarette butts from your ashtray.

Their bare feet feel the stones settle in the land.

I see them pass my window going down

then back then down again. Sometimes

they return with a child in their arms,

a woman at their side and the world keeps

turning at its pace. The young men know

these steps in the dust along this road.