Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Sarah St Vincent Welch #371 The middle of the day bus




(for Digby Woolfe  and Canberra’s route 39
which he so loved)


people meet your eye, on
the middle of the day bus
a long and longer look,
another look back,
seeing who you are, who
you might be, 
and what

which seat is strategic
now, on my journey
how disabled am I, 
how old
how close do I stay
how far away?

rim of earphone
sunbrown midday skin
daypack, placcy bags, a trolley,
then me of white revenant
night, Venetian masked
belined bejewelled eyes
my crochet beanie
my crooked teeth
crooked feet

he of a sudden gesture
an eternal conversation
arguments over, over
shuffling at the door
tag on tag off
the system’s not
registering

we’re catching wifis
the sigh of brakes
the monotone voice 
chanting all the stops

where are the homeless women
I wonder, where?
not here

in a broken car maybe
in the passenger seat
the dash, a pillow
leaves for warmth

we stop at Civic

5 comments:

  1. several takes at that pic before I worked it out...
    apparently only about 6% of the homeless in Australia are on the street ...
    but I have a radical plan for them all
    -- LET'S BUILD THEM HOUSES!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice stuff! Your images and text always so crucial together. I love the sense of the local.

    ReplyDelete

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