by Gary Crew
THE SANDSTONE SPRING
WHEN THE GUESTS HAD left and Stan romped unbridled with his love come home, Augustus walked in the moonlight, hoping, if he could, to greet the dawn. ‘This will be the first day of my adult life,’ he declared to the scattered tombs. ‘I would make myself a man, a normal man, my future constructed in the architecture of song …’
There was a willow in the graveyard, down by a dribbly creek (a spring, was it? Beneath the sandstone?) where he stopped to think.
‘Here,’ he decided. ‘Now,’ and readying himself, he sang.
So Augustus Trump became tall, broad, clad white by moonlight.
Yet as he turned, admiring, he glimpsed the full extent of the cemetery, that liminal space between heaven and hell, and realised for the first time how many poets had come into his life – Stan in his love, Miss la Vie in her agony, Barkus with his Belle Dame, Da Silva with his stories; even Rosa, finally, even Rosa, that blooming spirit – and how many would pass? How many – mortals all – would sleep, mute, in some shadowy vault?
Planting his feet, Augustus raised his eyes to the fading stars, crying, ‘I was mistaken! I should have remained a child – a dwarf even – since now I am reconstructed, now I am made tall, I see, and seeing, know …
So he waited, silent (his poetry, his song), until dawn and the promise of finches, there by that sandstone spring.
About the Author
Gary Crew has been published internationally since 1986, gathering many national and international writing awards. Dr Crew is Associate Professor (Creative Writing) at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. He lives on a property overlooking Lake Baroon in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland township of Maleny. He freely admits to an obsession with Jack Russell Terriers. His first novel for adults was The Children’s Writer (2009).
Copyright
Fourth Estate
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2012
This edition published in 2012
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Gary Crew 2012
The right of Gary Crew to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
ISBN 978 0 7322 8587 6 (pbk)
ISBN 978 0 7304 9768 4 (epub)
Cover design by Jane Waterhouse, HarperCollins Design Studio
Cover images: A marquetry and parquetry-inlaid upright piano, 1881 (ormolu-mounted mahogany, satinwood & fruitwood) by French School (19th century).
Private collection / Photo © Christie’s Images / The Bridgeman Art Library.