Heat

At the library

a man with

a gaunt face

and stringy black hair

is approached

by a polite

Indian fellow

blue checked shirt

tucked into jeans

The first man is

sitting at the computer

terminal that the second

man has booked

Outside it is day two

of a Melbourne summer

heat wave

fast approaching

forty degrees

Many of us have chosen

the library as shelter

from the angry elements

The gaunt man

is not going to move

his face closed and hostile

someone took the computer

where he was going to sit

A third man

also Indian

a busy staff member

young and funky in

a Jackson Five t-shirt

diffuses the heat

finds another terminal

for the polite

waiting

fellow

In the foyer of the library

a stack of local newspapers

show images of the

memorial service

for a local Indian student

recently murdered

No-one in the article

can be sure that the

attack was racially

motivated

The melting pot

of Melbourne’s west

always simmers

and can rise to the boil

with violent surprise

But today

in this place of respite

things

are

cool