we had herbal concoctions
to last us a lifetime

a desk job
an endless time-sheet
and sick days to spare

we worked out the odds
and went the way
of the lighthorse

***

i felt the highway
tear a way like a page

every word written
was whispered

and there was nothing
paul kelly could tell us
that we didn’t already know.

i was watching all those things
which are quick,
become things which are
slow.

we built tunnels
to the depths
of our bodies

but in that
yellow light
i felt it all
undoing.

there was only
landscape
now
that pastel house
a museum

like the vanishing point
of the road

endlessly
undoing.

we ate Vietnamese food
in the suburb where I grew up
and waited for the panic to stop

it was dawn when you finally came round,
a blue car with the music
turned up

across the road I saw
the colour of our shadows
turn to white.