The Bridge On The Way Out Of Seymour
A pram in the water
an old bookcase
a door with one hinge
hard to say
all abandoned
the children grew up
left town years ago
she took her last breath
in the library rest in peace
he shut the door behind him
the bridge on the way out of Seymour
and I just got here
How well those links work! Love it.
ReplyDeletebeautifully local and regional yet familiar road trip...
ReplyDeleteCheers, James & Jeffree
ReplyDeleteI remember climbing out of the rain into a car outskirts of Seymour 75 or 76 and it was something flash with a coloured dashboard - like getting into that spaceship in Life of Brian
ReplyDelete-- and then just as suddenly I was back out in the rain, not ever Wangaratta
Ha. Yes. In the early 70s I also spent a lot of time hitchhiking in the area.
DeleteFOR THE TERRITORY
Lights out for the Territory
one day (you know it's coming)
speaking with snakes as he crosses
the riverbank, and shakes the grass
and watches how the horizon rolls
Humps an old pack, wears a GI poncho
almost water-proof, plastic around the clothes
a single book that keeps changing its words
the poetry of the world busy in a storm, cars
rush past him, sometimes a driver honks
Direction suggests itself in wind
the wind is directed by hope, and it
might have been assisted by love, if it
had not just started to piss down, if he had not
just seen a bolt of lightning explode a tree
After a while he starts laughing hard
with what will certainly be glee, the gods
are as wet and cold as he is, while the Territory
recedes and succeeds till the gray sun rises
and when he rounds the bend it is waiting.