Press the play button above to continue the Parracon Poetry Path! 

Or, if you’d like to just listen to the audio narration, tap the blue ‘Audio’ button on the bottom right. Find out more about the history of this location by clicking on the title below.

Macquarie Street Gatehouse

 

 

Afterwards

They said we were young bloods

inexperienced, wrong for the job.

Three of them and four of us.

The Governor couldn’t control us.

They say a lot of things, don’t they?

We didn’t plan it that way.

You could smell the tide

exchanging mud for brine

flower water like an out-of-season

apple in Lady Mary’s

hair. The chestnut on my right

was a hot head, for sure.

I can say, it happened fast.

Fast as in race, harness nipping

dust sea-foaming

full tilt—the avenue of oaks—

I could feel it coming

the mash of limbs

the smell of human blood.

Unendurable.

Someone should have told us

we were on our way

to a wedding not a funeral

but we were horses

they didn’t think.

By Miro Bilbrough

 

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Old Government House: To continue to the next historic location on the Parracons Poetry Path, follow the pathways and signs deeper into the gardens, taking the path that forks right to get to Old Government House.