City workers during morning rush hour, Collins Street, Melbourne, 2013

Peter Bakowski

Perhaps not fully awake, elbowed and bumped, you alight from trams,

Exit Parliament Station, to join the ballet of the brisk.

Rebel by sitting on a park bench. Such a luxury may incite a

Scowl on a passing face. Reading the

Obituaries in The Age, you’ll learn how often a certain

Nuclear scientist was married. This knowledge of a more troubled life may

Allow you to take a break from painting the town grey.

Look at the bird borrowed sky. It’s not raining rats and tarantulas.

What a gift is hunger. Because of it your ancestors left their caves,

Explored plains, valleys, rivers, seas. These

Adventures became paintings, songs, tall tales, family legends, headlines.

There’s the story of each person, on the trains, trams and street corners.

How vulnerable you are, how strong you are. I want to reveal your

Essence via the camera of this poem, as you swarm and

Rush in the business district, glancing at your wristwatches.