Problems with Neighbours – by K Turner
I’ve got problems with neighbours.
I’m an endangered species.
I’m a libertine in an ultra conservative neighbourhood
My neighbours don’t like the way I keep my carport
It’s not the Chinese way, she told me, we are tidy
you are dirty, dirty girl. We don’t like the music you play
She told me it’s bad music we don’t want you influencing
my daughter.
Her husband dumps all his butts in my carport.
He came back from China a few years back after the girl
was beaten up by the mother wickedly
I was at a friend’s place at the time. When I got back, Pauline told
me she was beating the shit out of that little girl! Her words exactly.
Pauline said she called the police but they never arrived…
Next day it was election day. I knock on my neighbour’s door.
I told her I heard what happened from Pauline and the police were called.
I also told her if she ever hurt her daughter again Child Youth and Family
would be called. Her daughter could barely walk. She was so sore from
what I could see and the mother still shoved her in the back seat of the
car, a tiny car, it was vexing to watch. The girl is 18 and still has
to sit in the back seat, never alongside her mother. They can get away
with that sort of behaviour and I get picked on for having the radio on
a few things in my carport, a few leaves, a bit of dirt.
Serves me right for living in Epsom I guess, but I’ve been here for 14 years
and Palm Court never was like this. We had goths and poetry readings
and music and no one complained.
I am an endangered species, being a libertine.
K. Turner
3 June 2011
