SHAMBLES

Parramatta Road is a shambles,

Proof that transport planners get it wrong.

Traffic lanes appear and disappear,

Most of them too narrow

For suburban buses,

Barely accommodating

A family car.

No right turn signs casually placed,

Possibly at the whim

Of local government tyrants.

Traffic lights seem to leap

Out of the ground

To stall the flow.

School zones speed limits

Are seldom threatened.

Petrol-heads move from lane to lane

As if they actually knew

What they were doing.

People movers full of kids

Pose as travelling slalom poles

For the enjoyment of hoons.

The air is not quite breathable.

Soon after Granville

The used car yards start to give way

To shopping centres for homewares

And fast food outlets.

The streetscape starts to look

As if was designed in a recent decade.

It is an illusion.

Modernity fades -

Derelict shopping strips of another age.

Boarded windows

And walls plastered with posters

Advertising concerts held long ago,

Telling tales of an earlier era

When people actually walked

On the footpaths of the western suburbs.

An old pub stands proud,

Fashionably remodelled

And typically empty of patrons,

Unless it sponsors a local football team

And the lads have won in a thriller.

Then more car yards -

European brands

And the most expensive Japanese models

Shine behind the plate-glass

Windows of dustless showrooms.

Then there are the first glimpses

Of elegant Annandale

And a landmark humble hotel –

A throwback to days

When working people lived here.

For the inner west is now a zone

Of dignified lifestyles

And supercilious good fortune.

Multiple university degrees paper the walls

Of faithful restorations

And post-modern follies.