|
THIS IS A NATIONAL TRUST TOWN
In this small town
where the old buildings glow
with heritage colour
and every second shop sells arts & crafts,
history, once a year,
is cast adrift
on a muddy stream of Akubras
that swirls and eddies through the main street
into the park,
washing around the market stalls
and the picnickers
with their billy tea and damper.
Today, though, it's raining,
the streets are quiet
and, in the vegetarian restaurant,
the Celtic wailing of Van Morrison
drifts like incense
from a tape player in the corner.
The girls who wait on tables,
cocooned in their youth,
laugh like their mothers and grandmothers did.
This is a National Trust town
and, trapped in the amber light
of this small room,
the pioneers are serving us lunch.
- John Low
first published in Overland.
|
