Old Melbourne

Like old Janus Melbourne has two faces:

One looking on large tree lined avenues

Sandstone buildings made of ornate facades

With all the faces, columns and scrolls

That one would wish to advertise

And heavy studded doors

Balconies draped with lacy forged iron rails

Make her stately enough if not elegant

She sometimes over did it

And looked like an old world tart.

The lanes are the other one.

They really are the entrées de service

Where all pretence of sophistication is dropped

Those narrow cobbled paved lanes are bare

With disjointed wooden fences and doors

With split arches hiding overfilled bins

The stone façades have given way to bricks.

Here is where the graffiti artists reign supreme

Transforming ugliness into nightmarish landscape.
©L. Bailliet
14/01/12