A Walk Down Slaughter Falls Poem by Raj Arumugam

A Walk Down Slaughter Falls

Rating: 5.0


It was the day we had planned for -
a picnic on Mt Coot-tha and a walk down
Slaughter Falls to view the reported aboriginal paintings
and the presumed water fall.
Four p.m. we had agreed to. A quarter to,
the sky threatened and we consoled ourselves
the rain would come and go. And we would
still ascend the mount and view the falls.


The rain only got heavier and we became
absorbed in its ferocity
and its bunting and the patterns of falling water.
A can of cigarette butts
flew down from the balcony above us
and the rain lashed at our metal vertical blinds.
Then fell the hail. Little ice pieces
falling down the driveway and gathering at the edges.
Hurry! Over here! This is hail!
I cried out
and we all gathered to watch the hail
pelting the ground below... It was
the first time my family had seen hail.


The rain ceased and the light
brightened the trees and the sky
and in the darker right a rainbow hung
above Toowong Village;
my son and I walked out to the slope
and viewed the rainbow...
And then
a Korean woman followed discreetly with her son...


Soon Slaughter Falls and Mt Coot-tha were forgotten
as the rain, the hail
and the rainbow
had been sights enough for the day.




(from The Migrant - notes of a newcomer (February 1997- July 1998))

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Patrick McFarland 29 December 2008

I love poems that are snapshots of moments. This is very beautiful Raj.

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Lee Crowell 11 November 2008

My children seem to recall their best family memories from the vacations too bad they were so few and far between thanks for reminding me Raj

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