Enter Without So Much As Knocking
Bruce Dawe
 
 
Momento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.....
(Remember man, from dust you came and to dust you shall return)
 
Blink, blink, HOSPITAL, SILENCE.
 
Ten days old, carried in the front door in his
mothers arms, first thing he heard was
Bobby Dazzler on Channel 7:
Hello, hello, hello all you lucky people and he
really was lucky because it didn't mean a thing
to him then....
 
A year or two to settle in and
get acquainted with the set-up; like every other
well-equipped smoothly-run household, his included
one economy-sized Mum, one Anthony Squires-
Coolstream-summerweight Dad, along with two other kids
straight off the Junior Department rack.
 
When mum won the
Lucks-A-Fortch Tricky-Tune Quiz, she took him shopping
in the good-as-new station-wagon ($495 dep at Renos).
Beep, beep. WALK, DONT WALK, TURN
LEFT, NO PARKING, WAIT HERE, NO
SMOKING, KEEP CLEAR/OUT/OFF GRASS, NO
BREATHING EXCEPT BY ORDER, BEWARE OF
THIS, WATCH OUT FOR THAT, My God (beep)
the conjestion here just gets (beep)
worse every day, now what the (beep beep) does
that idiot think hes doing (beep beep and BEEP)
 
However, what he enjoyed most of all was when they
went to the late show at the local drive-in, on a clear night
and he could see (beyond the fifty-foot screen where
giant faces forever snarled screamed or made
incomprehensible and monstrous love) a pure
unadulterated fringe of sky, littered with stars
no-one had got around to fixing up yet; He'd watch them
circling about in luminous groups like kids at the circus
who never go quite close enough to the elephant to get kicked.
 
Anyway, pretty soon he was old enough to be
realistic like every other godless
money-hungry back-stabbing miserable
so-and-so, and then it was goodbye stars and the soft
cry in the corner when no-one was looking because
I'm telling you straight, Jim, its Number One every time
for this chicken, hit wherever you see a head and
kick whoevers down, well thanks for a lovely
evening Clare, its good to get away from it all
once in a while, I mean its a real battle all the way
and a man cant help but feel a little soiled, himself,
at times, you know what I mean?
 
Now take it easy
on those curves, Alice, for Gods sake;
I've had enough for one night, with that Clare Jessup,
hey, ease up, will you, Watch it--
 
Probity & Sons Morticians,
did a really first-class job on his face
(everyone was very pleased) even adding
a healthy tan he'd never had, living, gave him back for keeps
the old automatic smile with nothing behind it,
winding the whole show up with a
nice ride out to the underground metropolis:
permanent residentials, no parking tickets, no taximeters
ticking, no Bobby Dazzlers here, no down payments,
nobody grieving over halitosis
flat feet shrinking gums falling hair,
 
six feet down nobody interested
 
Blink, blink, CEMETERY, Silence.