Monday, November 11, 2013

Tuesday Poem - moment by Jane Williams


moment

two girls get on a bus wearing matching mini skirts
and fake fur collared jackets when the bus driver asks
what fare? they whisper child like it's a great shame
that won't have to bear for much longer
one or two more years maybe already their heels lift them
one whole inch over the legal age they sit crossing and
uncrossing legs locking and unlocking mobile phones
like they're expecting important calls they speak to each other
in the coded half sentences of the cool beginning each one
with the word like as if reality is relative they raise
the volume every now and then to emphasise brand
names or bemoan such injustices as a forfeited allowance
or being grounded when the bus slows to a stop
in the middle of the road and the driver mumbles
c'mon boys move it along the girls look out the window and
catch a flurry of orange strange birds in slow motion
about to take flight but in no hurry and before they can
check themselves all pretence at sophistication crumbles
as they cry out in unison
oh look! monks! monks!

 
I haven't heard Jane Williams read her work before so I nipped along to the
launch of her New and Selected - Days Like These - (Interactive Press) at
Collected Works and was well pleased to put a voice to the work. I invested
in a copy - very readable work.

http://www.ipoz.biz/Titles/DLT.htm


2 comments:

  1. lovely... very perceptive. Like the bird monks a lot too.

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  2. Ah, the moment of dropped pretence - how wonderfully illuminating. The flurry of 'orange strange birds' and the driver's reference to them as 'boys' is such an odd coupling - love it.

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