Category: Rituals

The year I was free from exams
no enrolment,
no more study,
I met her.
The summer was long and dry
sheltered by trees
stone walls
scrub and flax
gravity pulled us down
and together.
Never apart
belonging to each other
sliding the banister of infinity
we raced dodgems by floodlight
ate waffle ice creams
and berries,
drank cheap wine
and plunged to each other
time after time.

Assigning roommates was proof or rebuttal of fleeting intuition
some rules inviolate
only legally married could occupy the same room –
couples not married, long or recently formed
men to the left
women to the right.

Man + man
Woman + woman
night shift + nightshift
roommate+ roommate = get on with it. Most did.
sometimes a clash
sometimes they clicked.

Diane and Alison : nonidentical twins
tall broad and blonde, slim and dark
“ Blocka ” the slim one called the other
‘ blocka.’ Australasian for block of flats –
two story concrete apartment buildings.
And
“ Miss Alison,” reference to an earlier life as a early grade teacher.

Just as a cocktail party quietens to two people
so to the workplace
I asked Diane
about her roommate’s behaviour
why the predicted hypothesis so wrong.

“ Alison’s always been a good girl
a model child,
perfect pupil,
a diligent student,
an exemplary cadet.
Here no one knew of the typecast
she can play bad girl with no shocked whispers.
She has, 
and it’s fun –
gamekeeper turned poacher… old as sin.”

Her mother told me.
She was too gracious,
too dignified to relate self-acumen
would have thought it boastful
“skiting,” was how she’d have classified it.

The manager of a busy totalisator agency
managed to convey she wasn’t, but
perhaps teller supervisor.
In pre-electronic days, the time of punch tickets
more than occasional, less than often
a punter came in for winnings –
winnings from a ticket that didn’t … seem quite right
might have been altered – ex post facto.

Then auntie would say
“ I’ll just get the manager to check this ” –
wait five or seven minutes
nine times out of 10, the punter had gone,
if not
she would say,
“ the manager would like to send it to head office
come back on Wednesday,” or whichever day after tomorrow.
Nine times out of 10, they didn’t,
if they did,
she paid out.
Her branch had lowest fraud in the country.