Friday, April 15, 2011

Riverside

Sitting by the river. Technically an autumn day but I can see nothing to suggest that except for two grey clouds. When the sun escapes them, it's warm enough you can almost forget that winter's coming. Two swans
sail past, and a pelican, and numerous ducks which which occasionally guffaw as if one of them has made a huge social gaffe. Then there's the birds I don't know the name of but which occasionally sound like a small child who has just discovered that a short burst of high-pitched screaming gets a funny response from their parents. In the sun something glistens on my black jeans and I see a tiny white spider inexplicably building a web on my knee before I'm obliged to brush it off. Uni students lounge between classes, reluctant to leave their friends, or cross the foot bridge to their cars. Up river a man is fishing, which is unusual on a river in the middle of the city. The pelican stands on the bank between the fisherman and a group of international students.

It feels still, but the birds are noisy, and the students are talking and laughing. I can hear cars passing and a plane decending for landing at the airport. And just once, when it was a little more still, or the now non-existant wind was in the right direction, I heard monkeys whooping in the zoo. The sun goes away and a young man climbs into the struts under the footbridge, undoubtedly to impress one of the girls in a group nearby, but he seems to quickly realise he can't go far and stands poised above them. Half a dozen skateboarders glide over the footbridge, each making a loud clatter over one loose plank. Now the highschool kids are out, and joggers and cyclists.

I'm reluctant to leave, but such is life.

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