Friday, February 5, 2010

Take care while crossing Sydney harbour

Time that is moved by little fidget wheels
Is not my time, the flood that does not flow.
Between the double and the single bell
Of a ship's hour, between a round of bells
From the dark warship riding there below,
I have lived many lives, and this one life
Of Joe, long dead, who lives between five bells.

Deep and dissolving verticals of light
Ferry the falls of moonshine down. Five bells
Coldly rung out in a machine's voice. Night and water
Pour to one rip of darkness, the Harbour floats
In the air, the Cross hangs upside-down in water.

Why do I think of you, dead man, why thieve
These profitless lodgings from the flukes of thought
Anchored in Time? You have gone from earth,
Gone even from the meaning of a name;
Yet something's there, yet something forms its lips
And hits and cries against the ports of space,
Beating their sides to make its fury heard.

Are you shouting at me, dead man, squeezing your face
In agonies of speech on speechless panes?
Cry louder, beat the windows, bawl your name!

But I hear nothing, nothing...only bells,
Five bells, the bumpkin calculus of Time.
Your echoes die, your voice is dowsed by Life,
There's not a mouth can fly the pygmy strait -
Nothing except the memory of some bones
Long shoved away, and sucked away, in mud;
And unimportant things you might have done,
Or once I thought you did; but you forgot,
And all have now forgotten - looks and words
And slops of beer; your coat with buttons off,
Your gaunt chin and pricked eye, and raging tales
Of Irish kings and English perfidy,
And dirtier perfidy of publicans
Groaning to God from Darlinghurst.
Five bells.

7 comments:

squib said...

God. That is so depressing

Kettle said...

We caught a ferry across the harbour just yesterday. It was quite sunny; didn't see any dead bodies (but I wasn't really looking, too busy eating sultanas).

Maybe I should go for another trip, sans sun and sultanas? Might see something then.

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

You're lucky I didn't post the complete version.

Kettle said...

Oh no! Was the man eating sultanas and sitting in the sun when he died? RAMON WHAT HAPPENED?

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

Maybe I should post the rest of this in serial form.

Australian Cruise Group said...

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Ramon Insertnamehere said...

I'm here to hurt.