photo: Rak Razam / shazaman@netspace.net.au

by Callum Scott
c.scott4@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

itʼs not a great main street
in fact itʼs awful
KFC, Mackers, Safeway, Banks, Smoko Shops,
Bakerʼs Delight, Pokie Pubs
the usual array of muck.

somebody called me a faggot yesterday
as I walked down the main street.

nobody seemed to mind
not even me
with my bag slung over my shoulder
and a bottle of red in my step.

teenagers they were
a carload of them
in faultless leisure wear
fresh from the Centrelink fields of ambition.

putting your form in is a full-time job these days
ask my mate Johnno
weʼre never finished filling in forms
queuing for hours
and pleading our case.

I thought about getting a job
on the main street, maybe in KFC
you never know
but Iʼd have to walk down the main street every day
and breathe in pre-oxidised $2 gifts.

I wouldnʼt like that, neither would my mate Johnno
we like being on the Sausage
ducking and diving, dodging and weaving
bit of this, bit of that, bit of the other
going to the main street once a fortnight
to do our business.

if Centrelink had a bar we might come down more often
but thatʼs just a pipe dream I have
when Iʼm walking down the main street of Werribee.