Almanac (Holiday Cricket) Poetry: Deano and the endless summer

 

 

Deano and the endless summer

 

 

Deano.
Lockdown Melbourne showery sun.
Still can’t visit family, friends.
No leaving a 5km radius of your house.
No calling in for a cuppa.
No school.
No work.
Time of Coronavirus Day 187 of ifyoucanworkfromhomeyoumustworkfromhome.

 

Deano.
I’m out the door and I walk the streets.
And today I am fifteen again.
No responsibilities, not a care.
Immersed in an endless summer.
Of Cold Chisel.
Of the Twelfth Man. Hoodoo Gurus. The B-52s.

 

Sun.
Sun on my back. Thongs.
Standing on the outside looking in.
Sky as big as hope.
The endless summer.
Camping.
100% Mambo and a chocolate Big M.
ABC radio through the coastal tea tree.
Hear the scratch of the batsman’s sprigs on a faraway international pitch.
The bowler’s delivery stride.
Heat.
Suntans and campground cricket.
The gelati van.
Standing on the outside looking in.

 

And I’m batting as DM Jones; stance of a horseman.
We all bat as DM Jones.
Splash of zinc.
Yellow plastic kanga cricket bat and I’m middling every damn one.
Difficult sloping wicket of weeds, sand and gravel.
Thwack.
Into the dunny block.
“Oh, that’ll end up in Coco’s!”
Thwack.
Over Lisa’s van.
“Oh, just reach out and catch it Geoffrey.”
Deano.
Thwack!
Limitless.
Laughs and crinkle-eyed smiles.

 

Bowlers enact Merv.
Or Gladstone Small.
Or Curtly.
Deano!
Thwack!
And he’s a Victorian!
Deano!
Thwack!
“Can we have a bag of chips?”
“Yeah!”
“Can we go for a swim?”
Eyesmiles.

 

Today I could walk forever.

 

R.I.P. Deano.

 

 

 

 

 

Read more from E. regnans HERE

 

Read Luke Reynolds’ tribute to Dean Jones HERE
Read Andrew Else’s tribute to Dean Jones HERE
Read Mike Sexton’s account of Dean Jones’ famous Madras (Chennai) innings, from Border’s Battlers HERE
Read Sean Mortell’s tribute to Dean Jones HERE

 

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