Orpheus Beach

The Head of Orpheus ~ Gustave Moreau

Somnambulant dreaming as the morning sun shines
to allow the pavement warming
The trees nod dew-shaking in green agreement
that tomorrow is once again dawning
With birds awakening the traffic to whisper
down avenues painted by numbers
That the day will return another blood blister
and blow dust from the ears of slumbers

And rising on updraft tarmac wings
from transient psycho street
Are all the hopes and florid dreams
of the people that you meet
Dreams of love and living high
for the future’s bright new morning
Or pinstripe suits or floral hats
to tip rainwater from the awnings
Dreams that have their power dashed
and dragged by high noon out of reach
Of the waves that crash in still life yet
upon the shores at Orpheus beach

Now wide awake with squinted brow
to ward off night’s approach
To shelter yet from vehicle brakes
that threaten to encroach
On traffic lights that glow blue-black
at coagulated corners
And promise more than can be given
to the past’s deluded mourners

And so the whirling firmament
completes another circle silent
To leave us back where we began
all tousled by the violence
That carries on behind our backs
in offices of power practiced
Not to rent the curtain drawn by day
by those who would protect us
From all they feel we should not know,
from all that is constructed
To draw the night across our eyes
and leave our lives entrusted

To morning’s hope and evening’s wane
in green and dream corrupted.

R.I.P. Grant McLennan
The title of this poem was nicked from the The Go-Betweens song of the same name:
"Time to be leaving, run from your reach
Gonna go dreaming on Orpheus beach"
from their 2000 comeback album 'Friends of Rachel Worth'
With gratitude for decades of great music
P.I.