Lizz Murphy - Poem 348: Back to the burbs

BACK TO THE BURBS

Still and balmy evening the kind that had families sleeping out on their front lawns in the sixties would we do that now I open a window a neighbouring dog barks a warning Next door comes home it sounds like a visitor in our driveway stick my head out to see I wonder why no-one else is putting out bins tonight turns out I’m a day ahead A glimmer of yellow through the window a motorbike on the footpath postal deliveries day and night At 5 am a lone ranger’s incessant call eventually birds respond in the distance the occasional wheel turns on tarmac At breakfast I remember that here everything is planted right out to the kerb there are few lawns to lie on