Inclement

Rain washes the train’s west windows with increasing force. Thrashed saplings uproot. Shop signs shudder. “Due to the [inclement] conditions,” says the driver over intercom, “this train will not proceed past Moorabbin.” We passengers step into the gale at Platform 2. Sheltering from winds that would render us horizontal, we share conjectures. A tree across the track. Grid’s down. Everything’s stopped. We laugh behind our masks at incomprehensible faint overhead announcements. Lights dim hallucinatory, glare again. It’s theatre of the absurd as half hours pass, no replacement buses, no taxis. Only poor amplification, flying timber, shaking fences, and “inclement conditions”.   

Photograph: fallen eucalyptus branch at CHN in Cheltenham, later on yesterday the 29^th of October 2021.