i know a guy
who presses leaves together
with heavy stone weights
to make trays
he piles up
on the veranda
of his small tin shack
that backs on to a railway line
sometimes i help him work
or just sit near
watching him with his big green leaves
keeping out the day-time heat
writing my travelling words down
into a notebook
or dozing on a grass mat
next to where he stacks the trays
as day slides to evening
by light of lamp
he packs the trays into cardboard boxes
ready for a dawn ride on his pushbike
to wherever he goes
to drop them off
and collect money
we don’t speak a language the same
but our times flow easily
we laugh
make noises with tongues
click fingers
smile warmly
touch each other lightly
affectionately
in the cool of the night
we sit out the front
of where he lives and works
and he goes inside and makes hot sugary chai
and we drink it on the veranda
together
in shared silence
as trains roar behind us
shaking the tin shack
and us
The poem “our times” first appeared in Feral Literary Journal.
Stephen House has won many awards and nominations as a poet, playwright, and actor. He’s had 20 plays produced with many published by Australian Plays Transform. He’s received several international literature residencies from The Australia Council for the Arts, and an Asialink India literature residency. He’s had two chapbooks published by ICOE Press Australia: ‘real and unreal’ poetry and ‘The Ajoona Guest House’ monologue. His next book drops soon. He performs his acclaimed monologues widely. Stephen’s play, ‘Johnny Chico,’ ran in Spain for 4 years.
Sparks of Calliope 