Kit Kelen #859 - house without mother

859

house without mother

in a Sydney mist

9.5.18

are we not in time foretold then?

here and she's not cause we want it

the flies rub greedy hands

meal's spoiled

is anyone surviving

so far among the echoes?

she wasn't herself then

not in a right mind

and aren't all wounds that way?

we haven't yet taken the last clothes to Vinnies

we've only half looted the books

there's to libraries and archives

there's so much not knowing what

it is a burden this house

signs are strange again

onwards is always back

plumbing's half bung

swim through the years here

lazy with what we have to do

so much self belief won't vanish

you have to take it away

his stoicism

her agitation

a little opera on all hours

I was always escaping

at the very least packed to go

she was a record stuck

one waiting

never out of pyjamas

Cassandra of the Top of The Stairs

and Hanrahan

then ready to go out

and always up for a drink

smokes she left overnight

we are all elsewhere ghosts

sat on a step and learned to spell

you tie your laces already

see those two boys weeding the lawn

yes it was that kind of camp

mid sixties tiling perfect still

but now no parquetry protector

the horror for estapol is gone

here's a nightie nagging

and huff

there goes the creak

of stairs come up

a shuffle

that's how the cards fell out

a slouch where dad would stretch

cocktails up and down

black forest cake

trifle

rice pud with the damned sultanas

dad was here a long time gone

but we'll empty this house of us all

have to pay people to get rid of this stuff

you do know that?

she had us all talked into a corner

the only last thing one can't imagine –

she won't be coming back