2005-03-07T16:23:00.002+11:00

Back Lane

a villanelle

As spring rain sweetens the cool air of night
showering a million stars at my feet

moonlight falls washing the rough blue-stones white

where back-lane fences circumscribe our life

and palings point skywards like jagged teeth

as spring rain sweetens the cool air of night

kids play touch-tiggy, hopscotch, pick fights

hang around with dirty knees hungry ‘til tea

where moonlight washes the rough blue-stones white

escape is planned here for the next bank heist

safe haven for all who trespass this beat

where spring rain sweetens the cool air of night

and young girls seek refuge - give birth in flight

poverty - harsh mother of this their street

where moonlight silvers the rough blue-stones white

and memories uncurl to rise and bite

struggle on this street where life and death meet

where spring rain sweetens the cool air of night

moonlight still falls, washing the blue-stones white

Pamela Sidney 2004

2004-12-13T21:10:00.002+11:00

Chaotic Heart

Melbourne's trams don't deviate
green gorgons centre stage
down from Olympus to take revenge
on Swanston Street skateboarders
loop the moon and back
hero dressed alien swoopers
reversed base-ball cap

forever-framed Chloe
presides - benevolent beauty
Young & Jackson's boozers
turn backs to the luminous beauty

angsty bored commuters
ride endless odysseys
read back-fence grafitti
dream teen-fantasy
silver rattlers cross-ties
outride by wasteland
corridor - plastic
shopping mall
lonely outposts
of spray-can oblivion
kept alive by life-lines
Seven Eleven heaven
and the local railway station

King Street cruises, table-dances
lascivious glances, stilt-heel
pelvis peel, bikini-bobbing
breasts, fringe & fish-nets

across the Yarra neck stretch
marble mausoleum shoots fire-balls to Mars
southern zodiac slam everyman zombies
red-eyed stare, string-bag hags
feed small-fry coins to eternal
spinning glitz machines

outside the tower of power
vigil's of prayer, placards dare
'save the gambler's souls'

across St Kilda Road
cool green carpets grow trees
pansies, smile at walkers
talkers, coffee-cup clatter
cream-cake-show-case
dollar-cent-ticker-tape

burgundy leaves crunch underfoot
under gothic arch of oak and ash
in autumn's mist old Europe's
memory, planted in rows regally

on Lygon Street
the frenzied poet yells, tells
all he knows secrets for every ear
any home in a storm, thinking
sent him sane, gave him attack of heart
he cries out "the experiment has failed -
just do it for love"

Flinders Street Station sits
squat like a maiden aunt
staid, unflinching, looking down
on her flotsam and jetsam
street-life deal, free-wheel
bag-pipe squeal, dancing
bantering, below the clocks
ticking hours to the next shift

at the take-away, ten dollar a
(have a nice day) school kids
serve you french fries
with free enterprise smiles
slavery did not die

art-spire metamorphoses
white to blue to purple
buskers drum drums
jingle symbols croon
for currency, ecstasy
exacting philosophy
waiting, busking for Godot

Vic Museum shifts house
to Exhibitions' Hole of Hades
a cold architecture pervades
transmigrates to a blade
another burgeoning fascist blade

State Library's barren garden
meagre pickings for sparrows
students share
the back-pack-stack-space

ragged ones congregate
for best bench stake-out
seek safe-hollow squalor
the next 'salvo' dollar
line up for yesterday's bread
political agenda's well fed
democracy doles out soup
from a communal bowl
hand-me-down-heaven
hope's on hold

Parliament House of Paranoia
looks sideways at workers
marchers, social drama
Treasury Garden
tribal gathering place
protest, solidarity
magical space
now become
post-Kennett place

nor' east to Brunswick Streets
tattoed feral chic, black rainbow
uniform of fashion. matching
eyebrow-ring, nipple-ring
through the nose gypsy-ring
'Adams Family' phantoms parade
dungeons without dragons
Goth group grunge, cafe` late` cult
Jean-Paul Sartre, with pasta
Dostoyevsky, ratatouille
Marquis de Sade, french salade
promenade to be be seen
Narcissus preen
thoroughbred aliens
strut unseeing
swan by in a dream
Cobain clones
Nick Cave drones
mediaeval Madonnas
S & M, sterio steriotypes
dykes in khaki Bombay bloomers
in company of likewise

street-wise locals wake late
un-uniformed, sleep-state
vegetarian friends of the earth
say all chooks deserve a free range
ban animal spare parts, no clones
hands off baby seals, wear no fur
save the trees, use unbleached
toilet paper, and at confest time
bring your own brown rice
and Bagwhan sandals

shop fronts sell transcendence
cosmic consciousness for a fee
macrobiotics for immortality
balance your brainwaves
cleanse your aura
discover your origin of galaxy

up Punt Road's hill nose to tail
through peak hours leaden haze
to Chapel on South Yarra
street of bored waitresses
fake smile waiters

sleek boutique clique
sharp business suit and tie
privatise, downsize, free-enterprise
economic dries, the - market - lies
lamborghini purr, women stare
dollar heart thumps, jumps
skips a beat, on heat
empty dream, scheme
financial deal, they steal
from proletariat heros
who pose with red-rose flag
black beret of 'risen' Che
Guevara guerillas
Eureka flag miners
waterside workers
social righters
freedom fighters
S11 braving
"the new world order"

so, Melbourne grinds on
four am slowdown, eyes close
nods her head, blinks, winks
in sleep, 'til birds wake again
to her grey street-sweeper dawn

Pamela Sidney 1997

MELBOURNE POEMSby MELBOURNE POET PAMELA SIDNEY