The Streets of Murwillumbah

The Streets of Murwillumbah

I’ve looked at Google maps 

of cities I loved in the past, 

zooming in on the photos:

Denpasar, Edinburgh, Venice, 

Cusco, Kathmandu.…

The names are still magic, but 

our love affairs were decades ago.

I see how they've all changed.

(A Starbucks in Cusco. A rebuilt,

smaller Pilgrim’s in Kathmandu.) 

For Melbourne and Launceston

I need no maps, I do return – 

to remembered cold, more traffic, 

and for me the soul gone out. 

‘You can’t go home again’.

You can be where home is now.

25 years of small Murwillumbah.

‘You can walk around it in 15 minutes’

said Andrew back then, of the CBD.

I’m slower now, but it hasn’t grown.

There are changes here too –

old shops gone, new restaurants –

but we’ve adapted. We like our 

new music venues, the cinema's 

art deco just enough revamped.

Already, along the river, 

the murals on the flood walls 

need touching up, no longer new.

The big Art Gallery just out of town

overflows to a downtown precinct.

The river never changes,

though the levels go up and down.

The mountain never changes,

except for the amount of cloud.

These vistas reassure.

And when I walk around

the streets of Murwillumbah, 

I meet people who hail me

and smile. Some stop for a hug.

The shopkeepers greet me too.

The streets of Murwillumbah

have trees edging the footpaths.

Al fresco cafés proliferate.

The hospital’s just up the hill

and so is the swimming complex.

The library has outdoor tables too,

in shady spots in range of Wifi. 

And the only DVD lender left

has slashed his prices to compete

with Netflix etc (it's working so far).

The streets of Murwillumbah

still have clean air, happy birds,

a horizon of hills and mountains,

buildings with history – and, visitors say,

a surprising number of New Age shops.

‘Not your typical Australian country town,’ 

they point out. ‘Oh,’ we say vaguely,

‘I suppose not.’ These streets are home

to artists, healers, crystal vendors, poets. 

Yes – these streets are home.

For day 14 of Poems in April at 'imaginary garden with real toads' we are asked to write on 'The Streets of [a favourite town or city]'.