Green Shadows by Gerald Murnane

Author:Gerald Murnane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Giramondo Publishing

Pettits’ Tap

For Brody Gray

Your mother told me how you fronted

calmly up to the schoolground bully,

not to defend yourself or punch

or grapple, but to ask him coolly

how it felt to bring to tears

his weakling victim. The bully’s reply

I wasn’t told, but sixty years

and more ago, thus questioned, I

would have struggled to find an answer,

not only for your sort but for myself.

Along one wall of St Kilian’s shelter

shed was a row of drinking taps.

The basin at the further end

was mottled and stained, and every kid knew

it was Pettits’ tap. No one but Len

or his older sisters must ever use

the filthy thing. Who devised this law?

Enforcing it was all we cared

about. And why the Pettits? They wore

patched hand-me-downs. For lunch they shared

bread smeared with jam from a newsprint parcel.

Len’s hair was shaggy, and he talked all strange,

and he never fought back. Once, he even farted

when we had him cornered. On a notable day,

there was only the pair of us near the taps

when I caught him gulping a handful of water

from one of ours. It was no satisfaction

for me alone to react. I called

to the Mob. They had their usual fun.

Len blubbered as usual, and I was proud

to be with the majority, and if someone

of your sort, Brody, had asked me how

I felt, I would probably not have obliged

him. Few feelings can be aptly described

or last but, Brody, this one survived

and has stuck with me through a long lifetime.

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