Robert Verdon, #383, In the Long Run
1971
at the Lachlan Court Café —
one
eggana bakka roll, she’d
yell out the back,
or
he’d cringe,
come again, lovely, lovely man
to
the tall handsome
fellow ahead in
the queue,
then
he’d see me: ah, waddya want?
Very
shy and given to panic attacks,
I
smoked incessantly,
flyaway hair down to my shoulderblades,
worked
across the road in a
curved office building,
later
knocked down due to asbestos,
and
still looked forward
to a glorious future
that
hasn’t come yet.
I
am still thinking about it.
Meanwhile,
the fog swirls like
corrugated cardboard,
time
is the Big Bang in reverse,
hardly
anyone seems to search for the motor of history,
while
absurdity piles on
absurdity like a pyramid of dry-ice cubes.
I like.
ReplyDeletethanks Sara
ReplyDeletehey 388
ReplyDeletei feel the year is already over
must be that glorious future
as supplied by the motor of time
ah, nostalgia for the future!
DeleteTerrific poem.
ReplyDeletethanks Susan
Deletehehe love it, and your images, as usual :) I've got some catching up to do clearly!
ReplyDeletethanks Efi; it sure was a long time ago
DeleteYikes. 1971 was the year I arrived in Australia. Got a job on a big cattle & sheep station outside Bingara, near Inverall NSW. First month as offsider to old Ted Marks, the station killer & butcher, providing all the meat for the 30 odd people living there.
ReplyDeleteNo egg and bacon rolls though? :)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI recall the chooks, & only one big pig
Deletehis back I would rub with a hessian bag
just because he loved it so much, but
alas no delicious egg and bacon rolls
if so they have receded in the memory,
pleasure once more giving way to pain
and anyway I split after a year...
:)