This poem by Judy Dally stems from a poem-a-day diary. One night she asked her husband for a poem topic, and “grass” was the answer, resulting in this recall of childhood in Yarrambat and its 60-student, one-teacher school in then Victorian countryside. Dally is a past board member for the SA Writers’ Centre, a committee member and co-editor for Friendly Street Poetry Group. Her latest Friendly Street project was Reader 36, launched at Writers’ Week 2012.
Grass
Beside my primary school
(circa 1958)
there was a paddock
contained by fences
(three strands plain wire
two strands barbed)
and within those confines
waved an acre or so
of feathery grass
which dried out in summer
to harbour snakes
and bull ants.
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We children
felt only the soft strands
that stroked our calves
and rippled like water
under the hot sky|
and during those summers
when we had no pools
or dams or billabongs
in which to dip our limbs
we suspended disbelief
and swam in the grass.
Readers’ original and unpublished poems up to 30 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.