Moran (The Birthday Boy) was written in 2005, during a long road trip to Maryborough to visit his parents. With inspiration from the journey of JRR Tolkien’s hobbits, this cross country trip seemed almost as long and caused the author to fall asleep shortly after writing the poem. If you’ve ever travelled a long way in a car with bad food and smokos, you’ll know the foul taste in your mouth after a nap is worthy of a road trip poem like this one.
Moran went to see his precious;
a chocolate cake in Maryborough
and on the tourist gold route were all these quaint country towns
like Creswick and Clunes and Bungaree
the drive was long
I snored
and John yakked on
about a wrecked Falcon in Bacchus Marsh
(missing all four of its tyres)
Moran photographed Falcon remains,
rainswept plains,
Alannah’s gummy smiles
and my dribbles
A scratched sign whipped past at 110kph
and Moran asked “Is it oats or cats for $8 a bag?”
we sniggered
we chortled
baby gurgled
so we stopped the car
for a nappy change and smoko
To preserve his velour, Moran
opened a cm of window
while John and I groveled
in a gravel bus stop,
swatting at flies,
pleading numb legs.
But like hobbits, we were forced to go on
and on,
and on,
until spent, we fell across the doorstep,
craving chocolate
with no longbottom left
“Moran (The Birthday Boy)” is an excerpt from the book Things Like Sunday & Other Poems by Suzanne Day.
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Things Like Sunday & Other Poems Amazon Price: $3.99 From celebrating Chinese New Year in Footscray, to strange tales of Tasmanian boat journeys and taking drugs at the local laundromat, “Things Like Sunday” explores life, love, tiny towns and big feelings during the 1990s with a distinct Australia…..read more |
About Suzanne Day
I love the way the “precious” reference comes full circle with the mention of “hobbits” later on in the poem! You have a really great awareness of sound, especially consonants, it feels like. I especially liked “yakked / wrecked / Falcon / Bacchus”… potent syllables.
They are still doing it … but quietly.