Category: Unexpected

My father always said money came at the wrong end of life
W. C. Fields, or Mark Twain, or George Bernard Shaw
said youth was wasted on the young.
Popular cynicism
always attributed to Twain, Shaw or Fields
the best being W. C. Fields on alcoholism
about not drinking water because fish fuck in it.
Dad’s was less prosaic
and more practical
about inheritances, partnerships, share market buyouts
coming after boundless energy was gone.

We were young. All.
Travelling
yet to be caged by suburbia or capitalism – ambition postponed.
Modern day nomads
moving between countries and cities
stretching two pieces of string that never join – wish list and funds.
Hitching rides
eating instant noodles
and skipping coffee
to pay for must-see attractions
$20 per day for backpackers in the 1980s.

Jean did better
better food
better clothing
better standard of travel
always taking the coach, train and occasional flight
and never having to choose : doing both.

Curiosity once asked
expecting family wealth or high flying career.
I work as I go she replied
photography
nude – select – well paying.

Was she afraid of after sales recognition?
Or accidental evidence later?
She smiled – tolerant and indulgent
the smile of an atheist hearing a child speak of heaven
“it’s not my face they photograph.”

After exams – serious drinking – then an unserious job.
Nostalgia forever remembers the summer as a farmhand
the unweighted freedom of thrusting youth
and harvest time.
Making hay
while the sun shone.
Shaved golden meadows
sun scented grass
barley water.

When the trailer is full
a bumping ride to the barn.
Pickup, load and stack. Pickup, unload and stack
hard and simple  – no ambiguity or complexity.
A bale teeters at the top of the pile
the farmer, quick for a big man, pushes it back.
It wouldn’t have done any harm – a glancing blow.
Funny you should say that he says.

Many years before he had been a teacher
cars yet to be two a garage.
Five shared transport to school
they shared petrol and colleagues foibles.
One morning on a quiet street – a lowercase t intersection
one car turning right, the other left
the school car had roadway permission.

A second look … hesitation… almost a third
convey falsehood – mistaken courtesy
both move at the same time.
A collision – brief and very minor.
Five workmates laugh
a good story for the staffroom
the other driver is slow to emerge
“shock probably.”
Seconds elapse.
Unconscious….surely not ? Cardiac arrest! Quickly now.

The door is opened and something fell.
Unknowing becomes knowing
becomes disbelief
none of them has seen a dead person before.
A small blow
exactly the right energy – precisely the wrong place.