What kind of poetry will be written here? (Oakleigh)

 What kind of poetry will be written here? (Oakleigh)

 

What kind of poetry will be written here?

Watching a doco about Laurel County in the 60s

And the bucolic spirit

That fed that paradisical music

 

& here am I next to a freeway

Pejorative ‘heroes’ revving their V8 turbos

And modified Harleys

& my soul in the next room

Or the very same room

 

Back in the 3^rd World of NOISE

How good is my imagination?

 

A moment’s silence at 1am

Recollected without tranquility

As the respite is shattered

15 seconds later by the lights changing

& the engines accelerate violently

 

But the mountains are there

The forests

If you’re patient you can hear them through the cock-made maelstrom

 

There, a few birds stir from their slumbers

& utter a night song – a few notes

 

The breeze caresses the leaves

The stars are bright tonight

 

It’s a clear night

The moon is half way round

The ground is soft

For the wallabies who are safe to journey

 

If you go outside your hut

To take a nighttime leak

They’ll check you out

 

But when they hear the sound of your water

They relax

& utter a barely perceptible wallaby laugh

“Oh, you’re one of us after all”

…

 

©Malachi Doyle 2023.