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.