Back to the Fifties.(Poem)

 
BACK TO THE FIFTIES 
The Hostel, Moore Park, 1958 
 
   Hush palls this female hideaway 
   of brown and grey (with khaki blankets). 
   From the bed in my cubicle I can 
   open my window, stash clothes 
   in the wardrobe, switch off the light 
   and close the door. Another inmate, 
   a model, has papered her cave 
   with drawings of herself posing nude. 
 
   Our middle-aged Miss Brooks looks down 
   on the model and never speaks to the unmarried 
   mothers-to-be sent from the country to wait 
   on tables and scrub floors. They hang 
   their heads and never answer anyway. 
 
   Miss Brooks is jealous Matron gave me 
   a window room because students need light 
   yet Miss Brooks has been here so much longer. 
   She works in Oxford Street at Mark Foy's 
   where (street gospel says) only Catholics 
   are employed. 
 
   The nine thirty curfew meant I slept 
   in the park that Sunday night 
   I was five minutes late. I didn't tell 
   my mother who thinks it's nice for me 
   to live so close to ...