Friday, February 9, 2018

Kit Kelen #769 - Hydro Majestic


769
Hydro Majestic, Medlow Bath
ii, 2018

the past is this façade and I stand for it
like the pregnant lady on the bus
too young to wear a cap
because mum says I should

a legion paused
ridge hazed to fray

run half a bath for a suggestion
it's by way of curtains framed

a world in strips lit

tracks dust
behind those hills more ridge
you're taken in and stare

clouds carved day first
white limbs reach dead

someone is always been transformed

and too much of a certain flower
mum says, though she's no gardener

today they're blue
it's distance
and gum tree in the air

the track grows over
the flying fox track to the valley farm

we scrambled up down teenage that
and slept in the station waiting room
with filched coal for the fire
and roaches tossed to it
should a passenger come in

the view – the postcard travelled through
rotation, railway, skywalk

and devils of Tasmania made with pipe-cleaners
coloured to suit
all kinds of improvised fun
and tennis for the adults too
though I think I learned here

it's not for the waters
you come back for the view

know that all this
leads on for forever
but not as far as before

I think it's a fire had the waters away
but one might imagine
very Arthur Streeton
pre-Hydro
I don't mean he was here

some secret liaison in the open air

dad was
before the war
and had a dish named after him
I can't remember which

but too much of a certain flower
mum points out, edging the Three Brothers track
passes by the ruined pool
fey places, faux Edwardian
more Darug really, all this style

and stars bright for remembrance
as if the world had turned

as I recall we never went anywhere
days of full board long gone now
but everything was here

respectable years – mr and mrs
it's hard to see what's near you
corridors
and the croquet lawn
and the world's best toilet view

like remembering a childhood sky
some kind of silence is natural here

the cloister upstairs still a morning sauna
east to the highway
white gravel gone
weren't there tall pines all along?

this castle had a forest
one native, one was brought

and there's where I wasn't allowed
pink lemonade came out

amazing how they've shrunk the ballroom
shifted the hunting scenes to the hallway
no walks, no pool, no hobbyhorse,
no Renee (Ri-ni), jazzband
no fancy dress, no Indian get-up

you can't even walk the clifftops now
that's where the legends were told
as if Aborigines were no more
but this bloke talking looked like one
must have been sunshine's familiar

and later with girlfriend, sex on the rocks
and another girlfriend, after that
as if for old time's sake
and still all long ago

sheet of cloud facing
as if you're in them up here
a corporate catch to keep this on

the details black and white writ large
failed deco effort
it could be a boardroom now

catch myself off grazing
paddocks away

same certain flower persisting up here
I won't divulge a colour

outcrop
poles and wires

rusted like bushranger
big bad banksia
here's a hidden valley

all look
it's just I see

from light this is all far

but the smell I can almost remember
that is quite quite gone

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