Tuesday Poem - 'Morning Ride' by Lisa Jacobson

Morning Ride

Eltham Station, 8.01 am

School girls whinny and toss their yellow manes

in half-wild herds on board the morning train.

I'll never be like that again. What's quick

in them now slows in me, though I recall

their visceral scent, new-glistening, which makes

grown men and school boys shift, ambivalent

in their vinyl seats. The girls gossip and stamp

their black-laced feet. Some part their legs a bit.

Something's begun, some urgent heartstrong need

for root and seed that no old god can halt,

no worn-out creed. The train groans to a stop.

The girls get off in a flecked-skirt, skittish mob,

disperse. And yet, the taut wire of their want

persists; their sharp desire, its imperative.

I really look forward to The Best Australian Poems each year.

It's always a feast. And this year it is not sorted from Adamson

to Ziguras (or even vice versa) nor by the title of the poem, but

by a narrative imperative. Look, almost every poem in the book

is tip top, (it's a rare year that has many duds) but this mob of

school girls on the train is my first pick to share. I have been

one of those girls, and now I am not one of those girls.