12 MAY 1990, Page 43

Sydney Brick

The city's rich with one Lancastrian thing And that's red-brick. The good-bad-poem sort: Some looks like raw rump steak, some's lobsterish; Some's rosé pale; some shines like ruby port; Some's apoplectic mauve and cheek by jowl With glazed red-brick with Kranski sausage hues; A red mosaic sprawl across the hills From Ryde to Marrickville to La Perouse; Maroon or fiery or plain ruddy-brown Each one's red-brick beams out its different glow In Bronte, Abbotsford and Woolstonecraft, From school, shop, duplex, block and bungalow; With constant startle, eyesight almost aches, As Sydney brick in Sydney sunshine bakes. Simon Curtis