Heat
Monday, January 25, 2010 at 12:24PM 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