Rouse Hill
By SOLO
Published 1 January 2021
Time travelling on the motorways
we watch the landscape change
as cramped steel and concrete
give way to open space
Somehow bare
and more exposed
Billboards tout BRAND NEW LUXURY HOMES
carbon copies of a pre-packaged urban dream
past the outback steakhouse
past the golden arches
Flying high in this distant
corner of the empire
At our destination
vivid white and yellow in the trees
A row of cockatoos
observes what’s on offer
making selections
from a drive through menu of their own
On the old Windsor Turnpike
I look across at Bunnings and realise
I’m standing on the front line
a battle between past and present
History holding the line
as the machine of progress threatens
to swallow it whole
The smell of death lingers on the property
rabbits drowned in the heavy rain
mosquitoes buzzing
Life and death intertwined
in the cycles of the elements
On the hill the house is old and grand
a sandstone monolith
Imposed on the landscape
built by convict hands
to oversee the Estate
Inside the walls scream
stories of countless faces
peering out from the picture frames
secrets betrayed in the detail
Sensory overload
floral wallpaper behind
oil landscapes and family portraits
souvenirs brought home
from Grand Tour adventures
The Sons of the Empire watch over it all
Foreign culture planted on native soil
determined to survive and flourish
just like the estranged plants
in the garden outside
The back doorstep
worn down by weary feet
servants shuffling in and out
behind the scenes
Hidden from view to uphold
the illusion of tranquillity
Catching our reflections
I’m startled
by the figures staring back at me
clothes and hair so modern
so out of place in this room frozen in time
Like living ghosts
visitors from a future that has
yet to unfold
The drive home returns us
to a world more familiar
tunnels and electric lights
Smog and FM radio blasting from worksites
Bulldozers, cranes and hardhats
an army of fluro vests
cutting into the rock
at this intersection of time and place
Clearing the way for the future
Same as the men who cleared those trees
and built that house
all those years ago