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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 24, No. 15. 1961.

Afternoon off

Afternoon off

From the top, windy and watery Stretched down towards the distant sea

Grass and gorse wet beneath Spring showers, are sprinkled with yellow blossoms

Then yellow patches down towards the sea.

On the other side, the side just mounted

Lay sprawling, dirty wet City

Wet washing, wet streets and wet persons

Running, hurrying, bustling and looking

For what they are not,

Or avoiding what they really are, In jobs ill-suited, with wives ill-mated

And children merely created;

All adding-up to civilised living in the comfort of man-made objects.

Now descending into this new country

Sheep on either side clinging to the gullies,

Or fattening on the knobs and spurs,

The couple in a car speed towards their destination;

A not-too-private, natural nook

At the end of some farm road

Unsealed, muddy and surrounded By green hills, within sight of farm buildings,

Close enough to hear the dogs.

The movement and the feel of love between them

The kisses that melted the heart

And the heart which forgets its hates and jealousies.

Entwined in a mood of wistfulness,

Is surrounded by just the signs of necessary life;

And the four hours lost from work

Are four hours spent in eternal occupation.

Nitram.