Garth Dutton

A Sign Of The Times (Parts 1-3) – A Poem

In November 2004, I went to Melbourne for an ‘alternative economics’ conference. I went by night bus from Adelaide, and arrived at 8.00 a.m. in the morning. The conference didn’t start till 7.30 p.m., so I had all day to do sightseeing by bus and train and I documented the day as poems.

The book was published in May 2005.

A Sign Of The Times (Part 1)
© 2004 Garth Dutton

At Frankston Shopping Centre
a sign of the times.
Three shops in a row…
A St. Vincent de Paul Centre
set between
a shop selling new & used surfboards
& another
marketing virtual reality.

A Sign Of The Times (Part 2)
© 2004 Garth Dutton

At Highett
on the Frankston line,
beyond a graffiti laden
back fence,
women in white
play lawn bowls
on immaculate greens.

A Sign Of The Times (Part 3)
© 2004 Garth Dutton

A sign on a wall says
“FIGHT POWER – NOT EACH OTHER.”
Another says
“BRITISH ARMY OUT OF IRELAND.”
Another says
“EDUCATION?”
Wonder what they mean by that?
All the rest are ‘tags.’
No… Hang on…
Some more slogans come into sight.
“MEAT IS MURDER”,
“MUTATE NOW – AVOID THE RUSH”,
“DESTROY THA SYSTEM”.
(Yes, it was spelled T H A.)
“WORK, CONSUME, BE SILENT, DIE”.
That’s It!
The rest are ‘tags’ like
EPIC…PNO…ZONA…POPS…
“In” messages for the initiated.

Tags: australia, garth dutton, melbourne, poems, poet, Poetry

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