Traffic lights turn green, but
there are no cars to go
on Racecourse Road
When I was growing up in Kensington locals had a habit, that my brothers and I picked up, of tacking the word “but” onto the end of sentences and statements. It used to infuriate my Mum and Dad. The rules of grammar weren’t strictly enforced in our household, they had their limits but. I think Mum and Dad thought when we used the “dangling but” it was just us mangling our sentences for no good reason whatsoever, but for me it was usually that I’d had second thoughts about what I was saying as I was in the process of saying it … and allowed the second half of my thought to trail off unsaid …
At any rate, Mum, Dad, the “dangling but” in my Melbourne lockdown haiku is for you.
Read my other posts and haiku, here.
hook turn 