Poempig finds this poem fascinating. It appears, at first, to be a simple poem.
It captures one moment in the poet’s life. This poem describes beautifully a flaw of our human condition. We are social animals yet too often our memory is rich on one level and faulty on another leaving us socially inept. We are immobilized by dithering or stuck in a state of indecision.
On another level the poem tells, in quick snap shots, the very complicated story of another life.
was that you, by god, after thirty years
outside a roadhouse where I bought
flowers for mother’s day?
she’s passed on since, but your old girl
she was gold, paying me to mow her lawn
a chore that you refused
hell, that must have been you, the kid who held
the biggest parties of boyhood
with ice-cream soft-drink spiders fizzing
and a slot-car set that filled a room –
once you rolled our billy-cart down our hill
right beneath a reversing truck
by jesus, that was you for sure
my drinking buddy of underage teens
in our fathers’ footsteps
staggering arm in arm down the milky way-
when first busted for dope, you employed no counsel
expecting a bond, amazed by conviction
That was you, by christ, still with pixie-point ears
sizing me up with a squint
you’d learnt doing time inside-
your nephew told me years and beers ago
how he’d gone to a brothel on a footy trip
only to find your wife, his aunt
for god’s sake, that was you, off to your car
and I hate myself now for not calling your name
Rodney Williams
Rodney Williams is a widely published Victorian poet and literature teacher. This poem appeared in The Paradise Anthology 02 available at Readings Bookshop. #mce_temp_url#
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