Poems

Williamstown Road

I walk the truck route, heading towards the hulking columns of the freeway.

The concrete stands strong, as Atlas once did,

Pressing forth the cars and trucks to the sky.

Diesel smoke swirls and gathers.

Black smoke. Brown river. Grey sky.

The city sits heavily here.

But there is always hope, life. Even here.

Something bright and brilliant – the lorikeets of rainbow.

Perched stately in their pairs.

Shrieking out their morning songs, amongst the exhaust pipes of Williamstown Road.

Lindsay Smelt, October 2019