Tears tease my face –
Pressed into my hand –
Propped by an elbow
On a window frame.
Cars pass steadily
as Dandenong Rd comes
and goes like an old mate
Familiar but much changed.
Arriving early –
I take in the stillness
And silence –
The smell of the heat wave
the creaking pews
Under slow steps
The church – erect
Stifling
In it’s repression
Fills with the muffled sound
Of subdued people.
And suit jackets stay on
Despite the heat, which
Causes a steady sweat to
Drip the length of my back
As I watch the front rowers
And see that they don’t feel
Like it is quite real
And it is,
But it isn’t too –
And I cry passively
As we stand and sigh
Simultaneously.
