On Struggle Street -- Terese Davis

[1961–current, Australian]

Every house
is painted in dockyard grey
cracked
in the emphysemic smoke
of B.H.P.’s wasting industry.

A foreclosure notice
stuffed in the letter box
warrants
a for-sale sign
pitched in the front yard –
a feeble crucifix
it marks the grave
of a steel worker’s collapsing dream.

Priced to include
a fence that cannot keep faith within
and a lawn
scarred beyond believing.
No. You would not choose to live on this street.
But another worker
will tie themselves in a mortgage knot
and spend their life to buy
a hopeless piece of struggle street.

Source: Porter, D & Millett, J (eds) 1989, ‘On Struggle Street – An Anthology of New Poets’, Poetry Australia 122, South Head Press, Port Melbourne.