down nanna’s house
just inside the door
on the right was the dark pantry
cold marble shelf and a white bowl
in the room opposite was a radiogram
large armchairs in a too-small room
behind which were piles of
in the front room with the three windows
was a large dining table with two bachelor brothers
HP sauce and dinner brought by their married sisters
assaulted with sadness the seasoning of their days
in the house ‘down the house’
below the park below the hillside
overlooking the docks these seamen
back room was the kitchen with a fire with a back boiler
the understairs space where the cat had her kittens
before the sackman arrived
the docks murmured upstairs from across the sidings
over the long bridge of a childhood’s widening eyes
the cranes did their thing
the perspective was cut in gold
on the black marble shelf in the window
of the Home and Colonial Stores
opposite Chapman’s the milliners
with the yellow pull-down sun blind
over there lived the indian ship-jumpers
their incongruous headstones facing mecca
nanna died to follow grandpa
my mum and her sister did for the boys
every tuesday and thursday they did
and me and my cousins janet did things
in the park where there were swings and things
over the fence behind the gooseberry bushes
she is dead now
and the sisters
and the brothers
the docks is also dead
and things
