By Barbara Patterson[1]
They in tired ways beset me
Asking for pass ports
And news of rain;
I cannot tell them,
I am escaping
And the sun will never shine again.
I am drunk with the deeds of daytime,
I am crazed with the city street.
They stand
Like shadows of relations
Fanning themselves from exhausted heat.
Please tell them I am indisposed
Awaiting the pedlar
Selling peace,
Tell them when I awake I shall be merry,
But tell them that now
I have need of sleep.
Barjai no 19, 1945. P29
[1] Barbara Blackman (1928- ) Brisbane State High Graduate, 1945, artist’s model, poet, librettist, and patron of the arts. According to Joanne Watson, she was stripped of her position as BSHS ‘Head Girl’ because of her association with Barjai. Now one of the ‘Legends of State High’..