platform 1 flinders street station

 

the way the people reached and screamed

the way they screamed and reached

 

a frieze of people on the platform

one arm —  and only one —  outstretched

 

a woman shouted — NO!

from deep from deep from deep

 

some decades later—

the adrenaline rush manifests

 

as a stately parade

of oddball facts

 

spanning years —

the sound

 

something between a smash and a crunch

loud, yes, very loud, and mortal

 

what, and out of the corner of my eye

had that been a flutter or a falling?

 

a simple second later

i find

 

i have run sideways

slap up against the brick wall

 

this is what i do, it seems

to not see

 

i say —  i am so sorry to a teenage girl

collapsed into her mother’s arms

 

at the top of the escalator

a stiff-backed silhouette nods at her man

 

two little chaps crimp their fingers

their father kneels and gentles them

 

and then the sirens

coming from all directions at once

 

how vivid are the colours of this ordinary day

the coffee and the cigarette are perfect