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Old Government House
A woman sits alone
A woman sits alone
Alone on a bench
A bench in an empty field
Which only has one tree.
A tree stands alone,
In a field, a large field
In front of a house, an old house
The oldest house, the Old Government House.
She is waiting
She is waiting for whom?
She doesn’t know
The three don’t know.
By Ceethu, 14 years old
***
From The Day We Met
From the day we left,
I could still remember
The beauty of the city
Slowly changing as we aged
But still retaining the history
Where he and I
Fell in love, and where it all started
We sat together, on a bench,
In front of Old Government House.
By Lina, 14 years old
***
Old Government House
III
Shoulders built
on sandstone grudges
I am humble shadows
Bristling lawn secrets
Indian myna scuffles
cockatoo wreckage
falling of bark shards
to fake flat earth
Hiding between pages
And timetable apps
Dwelling populus shot
Bent palm tree burns robotic
Dusty fear coffins
Sleek shunting
Rock rap skin
Classical chagrin
It’s just a building.
Go inside, unlock
Rusty colourful tongues
Brush off grins, congress
IV
I wanted to announce I have shut the gate
but my hands are still plastered sucking up
against the rough terrain of autumn sandstone
and my spine is up against it too. Shoulder blades though
are massaged from car-key encounters
looming grey buildings centring a wallflower
park, stand centre stage, no scaffold or shackle for lighting or leaf
V
what records do you keep close
sunlit daze, masking shadows?
Is it surface or sediment
Can we ply it as one sea stone?
VI
look I can tell you’re bored
bleak happiness unbounded
glorified passive rock cottage
just tell me what you want
listen tucked into windows
wrought sunken iron
deserted meadowless grass
I would be a statue too, if you asked
see I would bound the staircase
grand old Parra shack
put up, shut up I am boring
sleek blandness, unlit
but if I’d spark or dynamite
I would house nobody
VII
I am ruled unreal time
husk of echo dust
mineral collision
staring at smooth wooden floor
afraid of noise
clutching necklace quartz
planning for unlikely fires
By Jason Gray
***
Boer War Memorial, 1904: To continue to the next historic location on the Parracons Poetry Path, follow the pathway left and to the west of Government House, following the signs to the Boer War Memorial.