Monday, August 4, 2014

Tuesday Poem - 'The end of the shed' by Sandra Thibodeaux


The end of the shed


You pull down the shed and ignore the long-grass
that’s trying to tell you the obvious
about leaving things go too long.
This is a love affair in reverse.
This is creation caving in.
You look at a slab of concrete where a shed has been.


You stand in a shower cubicle
without the shower, without the cubicle.
You peer over the drain,
watch the dregs of rain and try
to work out what comes next.
A stream of smoke next-door
gives permission to destroy the rest.

               Wiring, defeated, cut at the roots
                Doors, destined for pigs, strapped to the ute
                Hardware deals discounted by flames
                Tiles you’ll never lay
                A tired Christmas tree
                Tunnels in a French dictionary –
                white ant resistance
                The score of Stabat Mater
                past singing for a wasted son
                Weeping negatives
                in an age where no-one knows
                what to do with them anymore
                but their eyes burn holes through stories
                you’ve heard before

Suddenly, your lover’s gone
and you look at a gaping hole
where a shed once stood,
where a shed once stood in the way
of your Balinese vision:
verandah, termite-treated timber
and a shower with a portal to the moon,
clean as it always was,
waiting for you to clear that ugly ruin.


I haven't met Sandra yet, or heard her read, because she lives in Darwin,
at the Top End, as they say, but I am looking forward to it. One day soon.
Chris Mansell describes her work (on the back of Sandra's new book 'Dirty
 H2O' from Mulla Mulla Press) as – 'Turbulent, hot and irascible.' And that is
just about right, I would say.

http://mullamullapress.com/Dirty-H2O-by-Sandra-Thibodeaux-mulla-mulla-press

1 comment:

  1. Really enjoyed this poem. It really struck a chord with me. So many things left undone and will there be time before we die?

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