Quickly Around the Neighbourhood
The old house
on Hollow Road
is being gutted
like a mackerel.
Dust fouling the air.
How long can you
hold your breath.
These things
never happen quickly.
–
There’s a shopping trolley
in the creek, water
up to here.
It used to be fish.
dVerse Quadrille #64 “Quick” and Miz Quickly’s Whereness
Thank you, De. Love those Quadrilles!
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Thank you!
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People can be such pigs…
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Thanks, Sanaa.
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Votes are in: the mackerel is the winning line – but the last stanza is so pointed and well made. Great stuff.
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Thanks, Peter.
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I am laughing so hard at the collision of language. “Shopping trolley” to me conjured up a picture of a streetcar in the creek! We call them shopping carts, so it was only after reading the comments I could adjust my image of the shopping trolley! Well written, and thanks for the lesson in English!
This is so good. I heard a documentary recently about houses being demolished and releasing lead into the environment, affecting the neighbours. Your poem reminds me of this with “dust fouling the air”. Then the image of the cart – perfection.
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I was taken by the title, Misky, and when I read your quadrille it made me realise that I don’t see shopping trolleys in ponds and rivers any more. When I lived in south London it was all too familiar, an everyday sight that riled me. Living in the countryside has given me a different perspective. I’m glad you reminded me of why I’m living here. We have fish. 🙂
Back to the poem…
The mackerel simile is brilliant and so is the way you conjure up the smell of dust from a demolition, another thing I haven’t experienced for so many years.
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I really love the way describe the gutted house… sad, and that transformation of the neighborhood… made me think about the song “This Ole House”
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The gutted house is apt to see a whole new lease on life. It’s being rewired and plumbed, walls replastered, and kitchen refitted. It should be nice. It’s the process that’s disruptive for us on this street. Noisy, dirty, lorries parked everywhere …
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So well done–reminds me of the work of the imagists: “So much depends on a red wheelbarrow…” Love it.
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Thanks, Victoria. I’m glad you enjoyed reading it.
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Changing neighborhood, house to be ‘gutted like a mackerel’ and drying up water with ‘shopping trolley’ where there use to be fish…continuity in expressions describing urban blight..nice write.
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