Delivering Tact
At your front gate
an oily truck murmurs away
patiently enough, it could be said,
while two young blokes
in tattoos and muddy denims
tug the small heavy sacks up to your house.
They are delivering tact
and it’s expensive
but worth every penny of the cost,
given it makes the whole shebang
tick along smooth and quiet
like the innards of a bedside clock.
That’s right: it lubricates existence.
You take delivery
sign a docket
and the truck puffs up white dust.
Locked in a jail of ribs, the passionate heart
judders
the way a cranked car used to do,
the whole system
suddenly coughing.
Chris Wallace-Crabbe
Chris Wallace-Crabbe (1934-) taught for many decades at the University of Melbourne where he gained a formidable reputation as a teacher and critic. He is one of the major voices in Australian poetry known beyond our shores.