A NAME & A SEASON

Thanks everyone for your helpful suggestions today - I've revised "Autumn in Melbourne". As well as changing the title I've cut out a number of lines. I've italicized "autumn " in line 17 in the hope that the word will look incongruous in the context of the poem - not sure if that works though. What do you think?

A NAME AND A SEASON

Think of an aged politician,

scuttling through corridors,

winding soon to death.

And a city, on the dark side of the world,

corroding river, trees and people,

named after him.

There hard – edged men,

shed them from the stony flanks of a harsh land,

glare straight and far ahead,

impatient to launch across the distant ranges

a vast, grey, bleating army.

So the place is branded with a cringing name,

and trees bronzed as lifesavers now parade streets

that smother fat eels and flowering manna gums.

Dead leaves scuttle

where soft fern fronds silently unfurled

and autumn’s dry death – rattle sounds

where wombats grazed and lyrebirds danced.

Only Lo – an Tuka, the Hunter, unknown,

gleams still at day’s dark edge.