Wattle # Claine Keily 116

Children my age
learned other things
I learned of
the possessive violence
with which men loved
in a house I could not enter
where none knew
or spoke of history
and instead discussed
germs and fevers
to which were ascribed
the names of mispronounced disorders
and colours

I crossed the river
to where I knew
I should not be
away from the roses manicured
and the chlorinated ponds
to where the scent of wattle
took me
and there far away
from the terror of
endless talks about
talcum powder
made a house out of
fresh wood and sun