Les Murray

The Signboards

Waukivory to the Broomstuff,
the Syndicate to Possum Pie,
places roughly eight miles apart,
with properties stitched between,
Manning Hill to Bulby Mountain
all spoken, in milk times, not labeled.

A lick of asphalt, centering
where every road dispersing home
abandons its bitumen miles short
of the valley’s wheatbag gravel
to vaporize on rear windscreen.
Soon the blue black will edge in

between paddocks where hard-handed work
wore flannel all day. Now
retirement and TV find shade
and blooms are tied for Singapore—
Vocations rising beyond this lull
climb on tractors to the Inland.

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Les Murray is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. He has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, including Subhuman Redneck Poems, Translations from the Natural World, and Fredy Neptune. His many awards include the T.S. Eliot Prize, and he was named by the National Trust of Australia as one of the 100 Australian Living Treasures.