Hey Darren -

do you remember how you weren't

allowed

come up

to            my           place?

                                         That

lair

of Baltic contamination

where: mulberries grapes tomatoes beans and (god forbid) even silver beet

shamelessly burgeoned

when only the incongruous and...

   decorative

would do.

How the furthermost you ever strayed

was the unsold rubble block

                         disconnecting

our raw homes?

There

in that blackberry tangle

where the remains of the old dairy scowled

irreconcilable as a pill box

you found

   you couldn't

     march the extra fifty yards

me.

So we

became diggers in parallel trenches

gouging roads for your Matchbox collection

hushed in our red dust assimilation till

you

were ordered

            home

by high-pitched hysteria

and

concurring as a conscript went.