West Footscray Heart Broken
Asked the neighbours to keep the music down,
His reply was violence,
Last time saw Dave was at my front door,
He had a bunch of purple Easter daisy from his garden,
The size of our lounge room- vivid purple turned my
heart yellow,
Dave’s been away travelling – only just got back,
Check if he’s okay – give him our number, ring day or
night-
The violence also insidiously spread to the bottle
shop, slashed face, blood smeared down Dave’s duco of his white car-ugly red
graffiti,
I went to the pool and I swam and swam- submerging my
mind into the numbness of the rhythm, my arms pulling through the water hard
and fast-
The quietness underneath the water blocked the screaming,
the yelling, the sirens, the confusion, the sadness in my heart,
My West Footscray heart is breaking,
Why do some people see the world through violent eyes?
Gentle eyes can never comprehend this-
Dave rents a 40s weatherboard same as ours- worn with
paint shedding hundreds of stories into the night sky,
Stories of other lands and dreams,
His house is a jungle of indoor plants and exotic pieces from
far away places,
Out back there’s a
field of flowers Dave’s grown and a paddock of chooks-
A breathtaking oasis of colour against the rusted corrugated industrial skyline,
Dave’s field of flowers is so beautiful – I am moved to
tears,
My West Footscray is a community so diverse and rich in
culture ,
The woolshed and the corrugated iron fences, the
railway goods yards,
The prickly pears and the vintage rose gardens, the
industry, the trucks,
The diversity of families – a community of sharing, not
violence,
…………and Dave’s flowers.
Rob 2012
