Victoria Street, Darlinghurst
As a sign of respect, four cops
in their brand new bright yellow
combat-look caps
slide on some leather gloves before touching
a half naked invalid. Everything said is lost with the lights
as a gas truck rounds the corner with a load of co2
over the hill to the swimming pool
perched at the foot of St Mary's cathedral
to refill yet another tank.
Down the road in the palm grove
at the gardens the flying fox colony
are starting their nightly pilgrimage
across the city out to Moore park
and every other figged street and
flowering native, from the corner of Cleveland
and South Dowling
to Burwood's Sandakan memorial
where, in the noonish heat
of a pre office hours weekday morning
a worker laboriously carries a stack of hairless piglets
trussed and thawing on his back
along Clarendon Place
as the council car park fills.
**
Halfway up the steepest incline
on Enmore road
a bus driver stands in the doorway of a takeaway
arms folded, smooth hair, crisp shorts ending
just above the knee
tall white socks just below;
an elderly passenger on a passing bus
turns to her friend and says
Now there goes a man who cares about his appearance.