Stephen Gilfedder: Old Comms

Old Comms
Melbourne, early 1970s

All were fabrications, exaggerations or “necessary at the time”
—the famines and deportations, the purging of the Kirov,
Show Trials of the Thirties, Benes overthrown,
Masaryk breaking a long jump record out a window,
Molotov’s Magyar adventurism, Dubcek’s bucolic retreat.
A sentinel for this class resistance stood against the human tide
At rush hour, under the clocks at Flinders Street, the Struggle
In a threadbare overcoat, spreading The Tribune to the masses.
His brethren from the politburo at the University curated
Polemic, dialectic and the official line in monographs,
Dancing to the Bells and Lazy Ade at the Manor House hotel.
The enemy nearby and symbol of capitalist oppression
Was copper “Skull” of white pith helmet and matching gloves
Controlling proletarian traffic flow over Princes Bridge.

Skull’s uniform mate Jeffo was the go-between with Norm,
Compositor and class warrior at the rubber stamp emporium.
Jeffo would sidle…