Ode to TOM ROBERTS
Dominic Symes (University of Adelaide, Australia)
this
is my story &
I’m sticking to you
TOM
as essential to mystery
as the TOM ROBERTS aisle
is to any survey of
AUSTRALIAN
IMPRESSIONISM
I’m looking through you
I love that you weren’t
McCUBBIN
CONDER
or STREETON
that these
paintings
did not require
three people
to move them
out
into the
PASTORAL
young TOM
& your cigar box lids
were I to hold my breath
long enough
you could have sketched
me—maybe
a streetscape in the
time it takes to skull a beer
‘bulldog’
your mates called you
slightly balding
even then at 26
I believe you
would have been good
to drink a beer with
chatty
not
overly idealistic
ROMANTIC
but certainly not utopian
beauty
in your hands (& mine
unless this is betraying
history)
brief
that rush to glimpse it
(that rush when
you glimpse it)
young TOM
it’s twelve and the Exeter
has been open for an hour
there’s hardly anyone in here
the showers have cleared
& the sun
kicks up off the pavement
sit with me TOM
a dark ale
in front of me
my notebook
a pen lent to me
by a flight attendant
a student I taught
last semester
stops to talk to me
asks me what I’m doing
TOM TOM everything
so cursory
his reflection passing
in the puddles
muted
the exact quality of the light
the faces
the light
I don’t remember changing
(though it must have)
old TOM your eyes
worn out from all that detail
in THE BIG PICTURE
young TOM
an impression
rendered faithfully
yours
Dominic Symes (28) is a poet from Adelaide. His poetry has been published in Australian Book Review, Australian Poetry Journal, Award Winning Australian Writing, Mantra (US), Coldnoon (IND), and Broadsheet (NZ). He is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Adelaide. He also curates the monthly poetry reading series NO WAVE. Visit his website.
