mitchell park, 2000

in hours this housing trust home        reduced to a pile

of red bricks bulldozed    clinking/ booming          into

skips            carted off as fill         to new subdivisions

now a block vacant but for the odd limemortarscabbed

terra cotta                         a writhing lead pipe elephant

trunk frozen in concrete and strangely          a mattress

these homes held the children i taught  thirty years ago

    their fathers

from the assembly line at chryslers coming Home of a

Friday after a few beers from the marion or the tonsley

 their mothers

from the upholstery cutting room             stuffed

   returning to linoed kitchens

these blocks                                       scraped of history

all ripe for gentrification                      as poverty

moves further north or south to fresh suburban fringes

rob walker

rob walker is a South Australian poet, musician and teacher.

His web site is at http://www.users.bigpond.com/robwalker1/default.htm

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