One number less

(ABS ... Sept 69 - Feb 83 and Jun 87 - Feb 02)

one number more
one number less
onwards moves the ABS

in need of numbers
two structures stand, straight and clean
the glittering glass caught in-between

one number more
one number less
time to move the ABS

freed from former concrete cast
office numbers now
in ordered fashion flow

one number more
one number less
onwards moves the ABS -

but THIS NUMBER must new paths progress.

Richard Scutter 31 January 2002

Cameron Offices, Belconnen Wing 6 from the rear carpark ... early morning December 2002

Comment on One Number Less

This poem was included at the end of my retirement statement when I left the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2002. At the time of leaving the Bureau had started to move to new offices close by. The weekend that I retired was the weekend that my Section was due to move.

The old Cameron Offices are a solid concrete structure of nine wings. They have significant architectural merit and have not yet been demolished.

I am happy to report that the Ginninderra Handicap Run, which I managed for 12 years, is still running along.

A gift given by the Section was The Collective Poems of Judith Wright and a CD with the Macquarie Dictionary.