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Abandoned Farm in Northern Victoria


For decades, motor cars
have driven past in haste,
eyes not straying far
from the highway to where,
set back and obscured
by scrub,
an abandoned farm
is slowly succumbing to rot.
I catch a glimpse
of an old cart out front
and stop.

Nothing moves or makes a sound
as I approach on foot.
It's as if the spirits 
of the place have paused
and have taken refuge in the quiet,
my trespass an interruption 
to their daily haunt.

There is a farmhouse 
and a number of sheds all
in a dilapidated state.
Rotted weatherboards
still hang onto
the farmhouse frame,
though a few have fallen off
where rusted nails
have given up their grip.
Corrugated iron sheets
replace window glass sealing in
secrets that have slept 
in darkened rooms
for what now must be more
than fifty years.
I lift a corner and peer in.
Empty except for rubble 
strewn floors 
and sagging webs
as if still weighted
with captured dreams.

Whoever lived here must have
taken some pride in what they
carved out of the bush,
their labor fuelled by hope.
A family with kids perhaps. 
There is a rope tied 
to an old car tyre still strung
beneath a red gum 
that would have served
as a swing. The remains
of a dolls pram 
and a broken cricket bat
continue their decomposition 
in one of sheds.

Their lives now have dissolved
into anonymity. In the privacy
of my own quiet, I call out 
as would a visitor might have done
to announce their presence
at the farmhouse door.
No answer. I leave,
slowly dissolving 
into my own anonymity.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2024




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Date: 4/23/2024 6:55:00 AM
beautifully written Paul and a glimpse back into a simpler time and place.
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Willason Avatar
Paul Willason
Date: 4/24/2024 3:51:00 AM
Thanks John for reading the poem and your kind comments. . Much appreciated.

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