for C & C:
N.B. The poem (despite what may get changed by the width of your screen) is
in long lined quatrains! The phrase in *Italics* is denoted between asterix,
i.e. *the phrase...*
What Made The Moon Whisper
This is the night for gazing at where the full moon is about to rise beyond
Spittal Tongues
and, because the 3.30 at Haydock was just as it should be, the pints are all
on Joe Coral;
the night for students, although well pissed, with loud accents and Casio
watches, to be polite,
for singing old Supreme songs in the gents while agreeing the barmaid looks
like Debbie Harry,
and this is when Chris will tell the stories again of how he appeared in a
film with Ali McGraw,
then how they shared vegi-burgers and diet-coke for lunch and talked of The
Good Soldier Svejk
while 6th Formers from the coast, with Lurex tights, large earrings and 10
Bensons, turn away,
shimmy handbags between their shoes and gaze at the tall guys in dark suits
stood near them.
This is the night for wailing along to Howlin Wolf, another last 80/-,
feeling good and tall,
for dancing with nurses half-way across Percy St., for giggling eating
pizzas, for hopscotch,
for whistling at policewomen, for acknowledging that Arsenal have a good
team, for lying,
then strolling home light-footed, where you’ll smile while I tell of most
things that were funny,
and later, after watching Bilko while eating toast, and laughing so much
there’s no need for sex,
the air is still warm when the huge moon hides its face at 3 o’clock and I
stagger to the bowl
then it reappears politely when I get up off my knees and whispers when I
sway back to bed,
*It’s all right, I understand, it’s OK.* And as I pull up the duvet I
believe in that kindness and sleep.
Bob Cooper
(Footnotes, perhaps for US and Australian readers...)
Haydock is a Racecourse
Joe Coral's is a chain of Betting Shops
Bensons are cigarettes (Bensons & Hedges)
80/- (or "eighty shilling" is the name of a draught beer, which in Scotland
can also be called "80 bob" or, I believe, "heavy.")
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