Off the Cuff 17: Crossing the Westgate Bridge & A lifetime of being in & out of love for Melbourne Ch 5

APAD 17    prompt: a science poem

Crossing the Westgate Bridge

Meteorology: low cloud, no rain,
still air, a tattered wind sock.

Climatology: the ponds below are still
and green, despite heavy rain, storms,
hail, anything the frantic Earth
can throw at us.

Seismology: there may be earthquakes
or tremors associated with tectonic plates.
Our vibrations are the impact of heavy traffic.

Engineering: impossible to imagine
the breakdown in synapses that leads to
suicide off this height, or filicide
by a man driving his own children
West to East.

Geomorphology: this asphalt road
must have come from somewhere
extinct and volcanic.

Urban Geography: pretend statistics
mean anything. Ahead, three and a half
million people. Go on, imagine it.
Then move to Mumbai and imagine that.

Biochemistry: somehow all
the competition for lanes
disappears. We drive
at the speed flashing lights
insist upon.

Historical Geography: at least twenty-seven workers
with families and possible futures died constructing
this link. No plaque in neon. No memorial day.
Instead the signs flash: Lane Closures.
Workers inside bridge. Progress.

Human Geography.


A Lifetime of being in or out of love for Melbourne

Chapter 5   2003  Oakleigh

One brief attempt
to embrace urban
benefits: a decent
school for daughter
regular visits by son.

The week we leave
involves landlord's
displeasure: we had
not cut grass, the
front and back yards

were as wild
as we felt, as
natural as life
in the suburbs
tries to be.

NaPoWriMo  17