Posted in Before the Rain

Intermission

Every year in the dying summer
a spring tide of human flotsam
floods the harvest town.

Necessity vs intolerance
gusts of ill ease ruffle provincialism.
Razor tongued judgement = tongue bitten resignation.

Dropouts
and opt outs
dreamers, and the disillusioned
merge to eclectic diaspora.

Needed and unwanted
they crawl over the area,
like a goldminer staking a claim.

They know the best places,
whose wife bakes muffins
and who
and where to avoid.

There are no complications
nothing is unknown
during daylight – work….
… after sunfall
once dark enfolds
and labour has showered and eaten – ask no questions.

Then,
as autumn empties to winter,
when everything is gathered,
tolerance separates from necessity –
until next year.

Posted in Before the Rain

Admission

Romance binds irreversibly to certain transports
some for name -The Trans-Siberian
some luxury – The Orient Express
others for adventure
or redefinition
changing understanding of unsafe, or squalid –
And some just are.

It was known as the night ferry,
the only one of seven per day with a name –
maritime shuttles linking the Islands of a lanky country.
Docking at 2 a.m.
passengers permitted to remain onboard until 5:30am –
other sailings had to disembark immediately.
Anecdote said much happened on the night ferry,
that there was a nautical equivalent of the mile high club,
hopeful ears heard getting laid was easy.
I didn’t.
No big deal. I’m in the South now.

Posted in Before the Rain

Eulogy

Rural compression :
people didn’t get married or fall in love
–  “they got together.”
Couples never separated, divorced or were estranged
 “his Missus shot through.”
Incomes didn’t quadruple with a bonanza season
–  “payout wasn’t bad this year.”
And when the mortgage maze had no apparent exit
and
the rifle became the final solution
 “things got on top of him.”

“This Friday is it? Hope I find someone like ya,”
my severance and valedictory.
On the last day he was distant – distracted
at 3 p.m. he said that was it for the day,
said he had to get moving –
“so you might as well bugger off too.”

Two hands emerge from the pickup window
one offering a handshake
the other an envelope. And then he was gone.

Envelope contents

  1. Final fortnight’s wages
  2. Holiday pay
  3. Tax certificate
  4. And.

A smaller envelope: ‘ for good work  ’
– inside $50.
I never saw him again.

Part II
It wasn’t the most satisfying job I ever had,
or the highest paying,
or the one where time went the fastest,
or where I learned the most about myself,
or when I was proudest.
But, it was the best. So long Bill.