There’s Nobody There

Why did she care?

‘There’s nobody there’

She’d often heard her mother say

Why did she care?

It was just a silly dare

Perhaps no one would turn up anyway

 

They were to meet at the bend in the Maribyrnong

Where the old shack hid from Port Phillip Bay

She’d always wanted to go inside

But felt it was wrong

It would have been somebody’s home

Back in the day

 

The others said it was because she was scared

But she chose not to enter the fray

Today she would show them and take up their dare

And she headed off towards the Bay

The sky was grey and her confidence waned

As she imagined the shack cloaked in rain

 

The others were waiting, as she reached the track

And told her to hurry, before the storm ruined their play

They expected her to run but she went round the back

And pushed the creaky door open, to let in the day

There was an eerie glow in the corner of the shack

That formed a veil, over a figure that began to sway

 

It confirmed what she’d felt from the very first day

Her mother was wrong, there was somebody there

In that shack on the bend of the Maribyrnong

As it sheltered in Port Phillip Bay

 

© Judy Norris                                                                                             August 2024