Off Road Shrines
Ribbon latched clutches of lilies on streetlight posts
crooked white wooden crosses on manicured lawns
on trees at the end of S bends
by the side of railway tracks in darkened laneways
wreaths of grief on sorrowful school yard gates
strewn with cards of condolences plastic sheafed photos
of the dead class mate tributes in crayoned stick figures,
candles; memorial plaques & planted shrubs-
trinkets; surfboard headstones
basketball hoops an Aussie flag - fragments
from a vehicle wreckage: smashed
bull-bar headlight warped steering wheel cemented/
bolted into the point of impact an obliterated
license plate holder
messages letters graffiti:
He Lived Fast & Died Young
Save me a seat up there , mate!
personal statements raw emotion
an eclectic mix of images & ritual - anything, to make
some sense, to explain the context, to start to heal…
Every month I whipper snip a small plot of gravel
by a power pole
on a sharp right-
hand bend on
Bulli Pass which collected my mate
Afterwards, I sit beside his ebbing presence
cars & trucks blasting
past
punctuating further
the general, inexplicable indifference-
the undeniable solitude of his demise
as we share another
regulatory VB
'Off Road Shrines' (2003) was first published in Divan #6.
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