It’s even got a cinema
the farmers like to go there
Joey, then they smoke cigars
they have a film discussion
in a room with velvet fittings.
But what nobody tells them
as nobody tells anyone
is all the famous actors
and all the leading ladies
Robby you can think of
have also been escorted
to the villages selected.
No one’s saying much about it
Joey but these stars
in costumes and disguises
could pass us on the meadow
or you could be hop-picking
Joey did you ever
and next to you right there there’s
Merle Oberon, who knows,
Harry, and all the Hammers
are operating tractors,
people with great talents
are all to be protected
Julie for the future
so there’ll still be the pictures
to go to when it’s over
and cups to play for Harry
and parties and by that time
some of them will know us
you’ll stand there with your wineglass
you don’t have to be famous
but they know you, you were there, Joey
side by side at harvest
when stars were nothing special.
Julie, in the wheat barns
at midnight when the work’s done
anyone could stand there
meaning what you hope’s
their meaning. When it’s over
everyone who went there
will have this bond forever
and we’ll bring our children out there
in cars with silver streamlines
for the grand reunion dancing.
Glyn Maxwell’s most recent book of poems is The
Sugar Mile, forthcoming in April from Houghton Mifflin.