Aubade to Fading City

By Jennifer Chance

To dis/appear
to cease
to get so small
that a puddle becomes an ocean
and the ocean becomes a universe
 
I walk the edges of memory,
dreaming of a car on a highway
with a Beatles song
blazing
and my brother and mother
singing offkey dancing
 
of Lincoln Square in Carlton
on my first day alone here
the whole city unfolding in the distance
thinking, I can drown here
I can disappear
 
of a train ride to Flinders
where the window points out
some flaming trees –
there one second then gone,
then gone
 
of listening to musicians on Elizabeth Street
singing aubades to a dying sky
where they choose, each time,
to dis/appear
into their own melody
to cease time
to get so small
that a puddle becomes an ocean
and the ocean becomes a universe

This poem was inspired by underrated Melbourne icons we don't pay attention to until we no longer have them. I wrote this thinking about the long walks across the CBD that would begin at Lincoln Square, close to where I lived. I remember losing myself in the city's vibrancy and music every time.