After the Election – On Rye Pier

By | 1 June 2014

After the painting, Rye Pier, by John Baird

With the sky thick as mud,
horizon steel edged, ship on its tightrope,
smoke from the stack smudging clouds,
the water at Rye flat as Clag,
flowerets of spume and seaweed
regular as scattered cornflakes,
Rye Pier itself stark
in the afternoon as an abandoned shrine,
Tony Abbott looking on like a bemused pit bull terrier,
tail upright, head judiciously cocked,
the empty beach like Ava Gardner’s
a good place to make a film about the end of the world
and with nothing to be gained but doubt
I dive into the election result and attempt a
Head-to-Tail with Half-Hip-Reverse-Twist
with the tide out.

*Tony Abbott is a former Leader of the Federal Opposition

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