My thanks to Briareus for a unique musical mix of my poem up here on swanston. Sadly, Collected Works, the Melbourne poetry shop referred to – which I visit every time I go to that city – is closing down in November. Listen HERE.

up here on swanston 2

above kfc maccas and hungry jacks
persists an older melbourne.

above the cathedral arcade outside
collected works it’s still the 1800s.

everyone’s slower. a shop
that only sells buttons.

winter sun draws oblique golden lines
through leadlight arches.

down the road at fedsquare a toddler
ignores thousands around him,

lost in tunnel vision joy. chasing
his shadow pixellating
on cobbles.

sees past thousands rushing about their
petty business, hubs of their own multiverses

while i worry about the rise of trump & hanson,
the fall of community,

the toddler revels
in his own moment.

(First published in the inaugural print edition of malevolent soap Vol. 1 (ed. Felix Garner Davis)

ISBN 978-0-646-97882-6