Hopeless 2014

 

The Closing Of The Gates.

 

The talk around the lunchroom was pretty quiet that day,

'cos they'd been told what had been rumoured, there was nothing left to say.

There was Barry, Jack and Margie, young Jase and Smiling Fred.

  For years they'd worked together, now the future stretched ahead

 in a blankness of uncertainty and filled their minds with dread.

 

The boss had been to Melbourne, trying hard on their behalf

to reason with Directors, (who didn't know the staff.)

They had tried to 'up' production, to cut costs in every way.

But, the factory would be closing.  Next week was their last pay.

 

Barry had three kids and a wife who wasn't well.

Jack, he’d ‘Do O.K’ he said. ‘The boss can go to Hell’

‘Margie's partner left her with two kids and she despaired

another job would come her way… ‘and I need the car repaired.’

 

Young Jason thought he had a mate, who'd help him find a place.

 Smiling Fred, who’d worn a grin, now had a grim, old face.

He had worked there thirty years, knew each machine so well.

he could not believe his work could end, with the ringing of a bell.

 

To walk out on the job he loved, say farewell to his mates,

 after standing in a huddle, while they watched the closing of the gates.

He wasn't ready to retire; it wasn't what he'd planned!

‘Pushed out.  Redundant.... Scrapped.’ by some unknown human hand.

 

*

Six months later, in the 'local' Barry said to Jack

‘You know young Jason went to Perth? I hear he's coming back.

He couldn't pay his mortgage, so the bank sold up his home.

He's young; he'll be O.K. with better times for him to come.’

 

 

‘Margie's had a struggle; she's cleaning offices at night.

Me?’ said Barry, ‘I'm still looking.  I'm sure we'll be alright.

The wife, she's crook and needs some special care.

We’ll take a trip one day I hope, when there’s cash to spare.’

 

 

‘Smiling Fred?  He died.  A note stuck on the fridge said he was calling it

a day.

Work was all he'd known since his wife had passed away.

He loved those old machines, kept them running just like tops.

The only mates he'd ever made, left when the factory stopped.’

 

‘He’d lost his whole identity.  He was a working bloke.

The transition was too sudden, done with a single stroke.

His family didn’t understand, although his note had tried

to say, that there are blokes, despite their age,

who get more from work, than just their wage.’

 

                                                                                                     (C) 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 2014

The Clamouring.

 

Turn off the T.V. Show me no war.

Silence the ‘phone. I won’t talk any more.

Tell me no sad thing which makes my heart break.

Shut down the ‘talk-back.’  It all seems so fake.

 

Minds sliding down through tunnels of voices.

Scream out in anguish at terrible choices.

Dreading a world wracked and swimming in sadness.

Clawing and reaching, to bind all in madness.

 

We try to recapture the solace we knew.

The arc of our dreaming we once secretly flew.

To gaze through the sunlight and crystalline air.

And look back in wonder at earth, and just stare.

 

I’m sorry my child this is what we have left you.

I’m sorry my child there is little we’ve kept you.

There were wonders so great, we trampled them all.

 Sights so exquisite; forests thick, lush and tall.

 

I’m sorry my child, I’ll try to describe;

 The world as it once was and seek not to hide.

The avarice and malice which took it away

And stopped the birds singing, first thing every day.

 

 Elizabeth M Thompson 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ants Aunts and Funerals Excerpt;

Excerpt From Ants Aunts And Funerals.      Chapter Six. 

The gale played a dirge through the branches of the forbidding trees as they bent before it and threw pine cones toward the small huddle of mourners already clustered at the graveside. The wind strumming the electricity wires swaying high along the line of endless poles which followed the road and made noises similar to the final notes issued from a poorly played bagpipe.

 Ravens flew up in groups, circling and cawing creating a scene reminiscent of an old black and white gothic movie. The birds looked intimidating. They were sleek, fat creatures, well fed from gorging on the pickings from numerous rabbit and wallaby road-kills and the occasional dead lamb from the paddocks surrounding the cemetery.

 The huddling, shivering group of mourners walking holding their umbrellas in front of them for protection as they made their way slowly along the narrow gravel track. They looked like a small flotilla of boats with their bows bobbing and diving against buffeting waves.

In the old ill-kempt part of the cemetery, a large population of rabbits lived amongst the tombstones and several took exception to the presence of the mourners by scuttling away hurriedly across the paths which were overgrown with knots of weeds and prickly boxthorn bushes Their white tails flashed amongst the waving grasses and then disappeared into the burrows of large warrens dug deep beneath the graves. During the summer the rabbits and the foxes which hunted them were joined by numerous snakes. These enjoyed nothing better than to take pleasure in a luxurious snooze as they basked in the sun on warmed slabs of granite and marble.

The old part had not been cleared up for years and although the occasional tourist or person tracing their ancestors ventured through the undergrowth and roamed amongst the broken and cracked headstones, no one else bothered about it at all. Some of the most unstable monuments had already fallen and smashed while others were so worn by decades of weather and neglect they were already unreadable. The wrought iron railings with fleur-de-lis tops were rusted and bent.

So much love, care and money had been lavished on these memorials and now those buried beneath and the people who had once loved them were gone and largely forgotten.

 The town’s population was too small to afford the establishment and maintenance of a lawn cemetery. Anyone who chose to be buried in the old colonial site instead of being placed in one of the larger regional towns still erected old fashioned head stones, some of them extremely ostentatious.

  Uncle Rodger and Michael walked ahead of the women, the old man making hard going as he carefully wheeled his walking frame between the small rivulets of water running down the track’s incline.

               ‘Hello Alf.’ He called to an elderly man walking unsteadily on his bowed legs in front of them. A gust swept his voice away and the old man didn’t hear his greeting.

‘Always was a deaf old buffer.’ Uncle Rodger, who was as equally deaf, complained. ‘I said Hello Alf!’ He called loudly once more.

‘What?’ The old man turned. ‘Oh. Hello Rodger. I thought I saw you and Alice in front of me in church. Not many of us left now are there?’

His voice was gloomy, low and rasping. The indication of the prolonged years he had spent with a strong brand of unfiltered ‘roll-your-own cigarettes’ stuck to his dry and flaky lips. His clothes stank of the weed and he would often have small pieces of tobacco or ash sprinkled liberally down his front. The tell-tale burn holes in his ancient waist coat showed an indication of its age in much the same way a tree marked its age by the rings of its trunk.

Uncle Rodger ignored the remark. ‘This is my nephew-in-law Michael. He’s married to Julie, you remember?’

 He turned to Michael ‘Alf is Alice’s cousin. About the only one left from his family I think.’     From his expression, he appeared to think this was not a bad thing.

 Michael, not sure how to answer this observation shook hands with the old man and felt the cold parched skin beneath his and nodded. He thought they had met before but it didn’t really matter.

               Always one to query people’s motives, Uncle Rodger asked.

 ‘I thought you and Ken had a falling-out years ago?’

               ‘Yes we did, but well,…..  I live close by so I thought I should do the right thing and show up for his funeral.’

               ‘You in the local retirement village?’ Uncle Rodger kept firing questions at him.

               ‘Yes…… It comes to us all.’ 

               ‘Yes well, you’ll find it’s worth coming just to get a decent bite of food then.’                          A sly little smile played around his lips. He’d known Alf a long time and knew a free feed had always brought him out of his home like a blow-fly to a barbeque.

               They walked on silently after Alf found he had nothing more to say to Rodger and put on a spurt of speed; his knees lifting up and down like a badly controlled marionette.

 

 

The Vicar was walking ahead of the hearse trying to slow down the unseemly haste of the young hoon at the wheel who wanted to get home get things tidied up in the funeral parlour for the next day’s ceremony and  have time to watch the cricket match Michael was also hoping to see. The Ashes were being played in England and it made for good late evening viewing during the wet days.

       Try as he might the Vicar was finding it difficult to add some solemnity to the occasion as his surplice and cassock billowed up around him fluttering gaily in the wind. He wondered as he walked if what he had said would have been of any help to anyone. He knew there would have been people in the congregation who either didn’t believe in an afterlife at all or who were frightened to deliberate on their own mortality or the deaths of people they loved.

Instead he had tried to make the point gently that family, friends and neighbours, were the important things in life not the collecting of things and not the material aspects of human existence.

    Plus he thought a little caustically as his thoughts wavered toward his own family and home, he wouldn’t mind being at home in front of a fire and looking forward to watching the cricket match either. Since he had to be present to officiate for a man he hadn’t even known, one would think the relatives and friends would be behaving with a little more dignity.

When speaking he had delicately made the point that when the death of an old rather boring man like Ken could fill a country church, it meant the life of that town was active and full of love and consideration for one another and those they knew and they must try to keep that spirit of caring they shared because it was precious. Modern life was eroding it away.

 Religion as such, he mused, after so many years of seeing its affect for good and evil, didn’t matter all that much, just so long  as people kept caring for one another while they lived. His Bishop may have disagreed with his thoughts but the Vicar was wise enough not to voice too many of his opinions to his ‘boss’. He knew during the past few years he’d spent  attending to people with their  myriad of needs, problems and traumas as well as their joys, his faith had begun to fail him. It was too late for him to change his life now and would go on to retirement and hope perhaps one day his conviction would return to him. In the meantime he would do no harm to the beliefs of those who came to him for guidance.

His brief and rather muddled musing was interrupted by the wind blowing a great gust which tipped his white surplice right over his head and he stumbled trying to fight his way out of it so he could see where he was going. The cheeky young driver of the hearse behind him giggled surreptitiously.

               ‘Crikey Moses look at that, it’s a bit like a Scotsman. I’ve always wondered what priests wore under their robes.’

 Rodney, had now joined them after having a couple of warming swigs of brandy from the flask he kept in his car.

               Aunt Alice, Rebecca and Julie trudged along behind the men.

 Julie was regretting her choice of shoes as the damp oozed into them. Hiking boots, or gum boots would have been more appropriate for the situation. Her feet were becoming wetter and colder the nearer they got to the yawning hole of the grave. Everything around them smelled of the wet. The shushing pines poured their distinct perfume into the air. The ground smelt of the wet earth and grasses and mould from the rotting timbers pervaded the atmosphere. She hadn’t smelt the sodden countryside for so long she was surprised by the pleasure she felt as she inhaled the familiar odour once more.

               ‘You’ve got the wrong shoes on for this place.’ Aunt Alice pointed out unnecessarily ‘I knew what it was like, so I wore sensible shoes. It’s always been a miserable place here. The man who donated it to the town knew it was an awful piece of land and not any use for much. Everyone accepted it and thanked him to his face but they all knew he was an old rogue. It didn’t stop him becoming the mayor though.’

               ‘Yes well, it didn’t stop them from accepting it either did it Aunt Alice? I guess that’s how politics are done sometimes and yes you’re right I do have the wrong shoes on and,’ Julie struggled to speak in defence of herself against the wind. ‘You always do wear sensible shoes Aunt Alice.’

               It must be thirty years since the old woman wore anything which wasn’t laced up or had a raised heel, she thought. She shoved her hands up her coat sleeves trying to keep them warm

               ‘And,’ Rebecca felt the need to support her sister spoke up. ‘It is a cemetery, so they are always depressing places, particularly in this sort of foul weather…. Damn! Now my brolly has turned inside out!’

               ‘Look at that.’

 Aunt Alice ignoring the sisters, pointed her walking stick toward Uncle Rodger as he reached a solicitous arm out to another woman and indicated a more protected position out of the wind, in the front of the group standing on the sodden ground beside the prepared grave.

               ‘You can help strangers.’ Alice admonished him angrily as they caught up, ‘but you can’t help your own wife.’

               Michael hastily put his hand out to guide Aunt Alice to a front row position. She snatched her arm away crossly. ‘What do you think I am OLD?’ She cast a baleful eye at the woman Uncle Rodger had helped.

               The Vicar having arrived at the graveside tried to stop the murmuring and talking as people began to exchange snippets of news. He cleared his throat. His first tentative words were immediately overridden by Uncle Rodger complaining loudly in Michael’s ear ‘You see what I have to put up with?’

Rodney guffawed in the silence which followed and small sniggers were heard from others behind them.

               The stranger feeling rather tired sat on the gravestone beside Uncle Ken’s grave. It was just the right height to make a seat, although the icy cold of the granite soon seeped through the many layers of clothing she wore covering her large bottom which spread across the stone.

 Despite her anger, Aunt Alice not to be outdone by someone else’s initiative sat beside her until she read the inscription on the headstone. ‘Get up.’ She commanded of the woman,  ‘I went to school with this girl and she wasn’t someone you should sit on!’

               Glaring at Aunt Alice belligerently she opened her mouth to argue but thought better of it as the Vicar determined to proceed, said very loudly. ‘Shall we proceed?’

               Julie held Rebecca’s hand for support. She was remembering long ago being perplexed by Aunt Alice announcing she would not be buried at Wellsgate as she, ‘Didn’t want to be buried with all those old gossips.’ When she passed the remark onto to Michael he wondered how they would gossip after they were buried.

               The service proceeded as yet another squall raced across the scene and the sleet prickled their faces. While the mourner’s faces slowly became numb, the circling birds cawed adding to the haunting atmosphere. Opening their mouths to speak made sensitive teeth painful. Everyone’s necks disappeared like tortoises into their scarves and coats as they wished the Vicar would get a hurry up.

               Eventually it came time for the coffin to be lowered. The men braced themselves in readiness for the strain of holding the wide belting and keeping their footings on the slippery ground. It would take great effort on their part to remain anchored in place.

Unexpectedly the Vicar raised his hand as the coffin began to recede slowly but then seemed to remain still for a while.

He looked up and his tired eyes swept across the group of faces partly hidden from him by layers of clothing and shadowed by fluttering umbrellas.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, the workmen have tried valiantly to pump the water which had collected in the grave out. Unfortunately because the pump broke and we experienced very wet weather last night it has again raised the water level and we cannot lower the coffin at present, but Mother Nature has intervened. I apologize to all the family and friends present but it is unavoidable and we shall have to lower the coffin a little later.’

               People gasped.

               ‘It’s stuck.’  A voice stated.

         ‘No it’s not, it’s floating.’ Another corrected.

               Michael’s stood in stunned disbelief. The Antarctic wind whistling around his head and passing through the fabric of his trousers went unnoticed.

               ‘Well, I’ll be buggered.’ Rodney whispered to Michael. ‘He’s right, it is  floating! All the rain has filled the hole up and it won’t go down. Course it has been a wet week. Mind you if they’d got the pump working they may have emptied it enough.’ He assured his brother-in-law who was staring at him in dismay.

Rodney seeing the trancelike expression on his face recognized another chance to make a well placed dig at Michael….. ‘Well I suppose you in your comfy little heated office haven’t noticed it’s been wet!’

               The dig woke Michael from his daze and he glared at his brother-in-law.

 ‘You try driving on the freeway for a couple of hours a day in rush hour with all the lights and slush from everyone else’s cars and see if you wouldn’t notice it was raining. Of course I know it’s been raining all week but this….this… it’s ridiculous!’

               Rodney shrugged ‘Crikey Moses, don’t lose your cool, it happens a lot. The ground gets sodden and the water doesn’t drain away. You can see its clay soil here. They’ll be able to put him down when the pump is fixed it will just be a bit later that’s all.  Of course’ he continued,’ they’ll have to fill it in quick smart and get the dirt on top or he will come floating up again!’

               Michael could make no reply to that observation at all. Words failed him.

               Aunt Alice, now wanting to let everyone know what she thought, told the Vicar to. ‘Pull him up again! He was my brother and I want him pulled up again!’

 The Vicar knowing he had completely lost control of everything went across to the old lady to calm her.

               ‘Oh Hell, she’ll be seeing ants again by the time we get to Rebecca and Rodney’s place if she gets upset.’ Uncle Rodger groaned.

               ‘Pull him up again!’ Aunt Alice demanded. ‘He hated swimming, wouldn’t go near a swimming hole in his life! He was a big ‘sissy’ about water. I’m his sister I demand you pull him up!   He loved the land and food and….. and……parties.’ She struggled to think of more things.

               ‘Never knew when he’d out worn his welcome either.’ Alf, now having been reminded of his argument with the deceased, called from the back.

               ‘You be quiet Alf. We all knew you at parties. Couldn’t keep your hands off us girls!’  Alice, throwing formality away altogether, stood as high as she was able and raised her tiny gloved fist in the air. Old memories of old complaints left unsettled for decades began to seep into her mind.

               ‘You should talk Alice, look who you ended up with and that was after checking out most of the boys in town too and leaving it so long to decide you were left with the last bachelor with money that was left in the district.’ Alf getting his dander up now, waddled closer to Aunt Alice and leered at her showing his yellow dentures and breathed his cigarette breath on her.

The Vicar silently apologized to the deceased as he hurriedly said the final words of the burial service and in a show of temper and displeasure addressed the arguing foes.

               ‘Ladies and gentleman PLEEEEEASE!’ Then in a quieter voice repeated. ‘Please make your way to Rebecca and Rodney’s home for the wake.  We will make sure Ken is lowered in due course as soon as we possibly can.’

               The gravediggers who had been enjoying the whole debacle had been watching from near an old gravestone where they had hidden the pump. They now moved forward and began the grizzly process of emptying the grave once more ready for the occupant waiting patiently on the board nearby.

               Aunt Alice was so fired up and ready to continue the row with Alf she turned and quickly moved down the path toward the car. She didn’t glance back once at Ken’s grave.

               Rodney was thoroughly enjoying himself. ‘That was more entertaining than I expected. You must be having a great time driving these two backward and forward and all around the countryside all the time.’

He grinned at Michael, his wide weather worn features brimming with mischief. ‘You’ll deserve every cent the old girl leaves you.’ He leant closer breathing brandy fumes under Michael’s nostrils. ‘She sure let go a few in the church didn’t she? It’s wise to be upwind from her today mate I’m telling you.’

               Michael nodded and glared at him. ‘Can the day get any worse and why didn’t you share your brandy? You can take them back in your car if you like. I don’t give a shit what they leave us.’

‘No way. I’m not having them in my car.’

 ‘We’ll get them back to your place and leave as soon as we can. I just want to get home.’

               ‘Ah, you can’t do that. You’ll have to hang around for a bit so the girls can have a chin-wag. They don’t get to see much of each other. That’s the problem with getting married. You get to marry into the family as well.’

               Rodney looked about them as he waited for Rebecca and was amused to see Michael trying to wipe some of the heavy clay from his shoes and trousers. The stuff stuck like pale dog droppings along the soles and heels and embedded itself into the treads.  ‘Not like your swanky city cemeteries, is it? You should get something done about the country ones.’ 

               ‘Michael can’t get anything done about the cemeteries, you big idiot!’ Rebecca overhearing him defended her brother-in-law.

         ‘Yeah, I know.’ Rodney grinned. ‘I just like giving him a hard time. Got to keep these government plods on their toes. Let them know we’re watching them.’ He swayed about a little on his feet.

               ‘You’ve been at the brandy again!’ Rebecca accused him. ‘I’ll be driving home, give me the keys.’

               Michael heard Rodney call out some instructions about how to get to their farmhouse but the wind spat the words away. He knew how to get there anyway.

 Ants Aunts and Funerals is available from Amazon books and Kindle.

                                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two New Titles

My Two New Titles

Ants Aunts and Funerals is a romp through the lives of a family group who attend a funeral in the country.

The younger couple who help to care for their elderly aunt and uncle know that Uncle Rodger and Aunt Alice can be a handful at the best of times. This day the two elderly folk excel themselves and cause mayhem and chaos.
It is a celebration of country life and the trial and difficulties of mixing the computer age generation with those born during the early twentieth century.

It is great fun for everyone who wasn't involved and should leave you wondering what the years may bring to you.

A Writer's Guide...It Isn't All About The Writing.

Gives answers and advice to fledgling writers to questions they may not know need to be answered.