Friday, February 23, 2007

Buy Skybus Tickets

One of the first things you see when you walk out of Terminal Three at Melbourne Airport is a sign that reads ‘Buy Skybus Tickets’. This sign is attached to an electronic kiosk conveniently located next to the Skybus bus stop. The Skybus is the bus that takes you from the airport to the city.

I love the 'Buy Skybus Tickets' sign. I love the creamy-smooth reassuring directness of the ‘Buy Skybus Tickets’ sign. I love the economy of words used by the ‘Buy Skybus Tickets’ sign. I love the thought that I could probably work out what the ‘Buy Skybus Tickets’ sign said even if I had just arrived at Terminal Three of Melbourne Airport from somewhere in the world where I wasn’t used to reading English signs.

The ‘Buy Skybus Tickets’ sign makes me think about buying a ticket. I could go in to the city and have a coffee; take the day off and sit by the river.

When my girlfriend calls me tonight she might ask,

“How was work today?”

And I would say,

“Well, after I dropped you at the airport I was feeling sad so I bought a Skybus ticket and went in to the city.”

She would be impressed.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The Prophet and His Passing

From up here that long oblong driftwood log is a mouth on a parchment face. The sea has stirred thousands upon thousands of sandstone coloured grains of sand into the shape of eyes and left an untidy muddle of seaweed hair.

I think I hear, no, I hear. The rhythm of the waves has become a voice. Adagio.

“I want to tell you something.”

The poetry that follows is wondrous, strong, soft. It is the thing you always knew but never understood. It is the thing that soothes you and breaks you. I feel great joy and great pain as a single emotion.

The voice is inside me cleaning me, making me whole, giving me hope. I feel my preconceptions disappear and my defences reduced to rubble.

But then.

The voice, that beautiful voice, becomes suddenly harsh. “The tide is coming towards me. I can not take this pain.”

As the tide pulls away the edges of the face the mouth opens to drink and to be drowned by the water.

I am left thinking “Surely your own wisdom could have helped you?”

There is no answer to my silent question.