A great tale, Bill. Memories just emerge some times…
Doug
> On Jun 7, 2017, at 3:17 AM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> OK, Sheila. Felicity was always kind of beatific in her way.
>
> Bill
>
> On Wed, 7 Jun 2017 at 6:10 pm, Sheila Murphy <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> I think the real names make the poems even better!
>>
>> On Jun 7, 2017 1:05 AM, "Bill Wootton" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks, Sheila, Patrick. These teen things, Patrick just pop into my head
>>> sometimes. Felicity, real first name, lives in Perth, WA now, I know
>>> through Facebook and is married with four grown boys. Should I change the
>>> names completely of people in memory poems do you think?
>>>
>>> Bill
>>>
>>> On Wed, 7 Jun 2017 at 5:49 PM, Sheila Murphy <[log in to unmask]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Great piece, Bill. Exceptionally fine. Sheila
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 12:30 AM, Bill Wootton <
>> [log in to unmask]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Chuck school bag onto pile at the front of bus
>>>>> next to driver. Pay him, scrunch ticket in pocket,
>>>>> lurch on to bus, flop into seat or stand all the way till
>>>>> your stop, squeeze past, filch out bag and off you get.
>>>>>
>>>>> Only two green bags amongst the sea of black and red
>>>>> Xavierites, blue PLCs and a sprinkling of other denominations
>>>>> so retrieval always an easy matter. Except this time.
>>>>> When you see your reflection in Knorr's grocer shop window,
>>>>>
>>>>> the bag looks different. Tidier. Feels lighter. Surely that Pure
>>>>> Maths book weighed more. Swing bag down. Sure enough.
>>>>> You've grabbed Felicity's by mistake. The only other student
>>>>> from your school who rides this bus, both ways, most days.
>>>>>
>>>>> Felicity. Slightly skewiff smiling Felicity who you've known since
>>>>> primary school. Who used to be such a chatterbox. Whose words
>>>>> dried up with the transition to high school as she developed
>>>>> awareness of her placid beauty and rationed its implications.
>>>>>
>>>>> What now? Head after her to swap bags? She might already
>>>>> be home. You know where she lives. Queen Street. But you can't
>>>>> just rock up there unannounced. Her Mum might not be home,
>>>>> Mrs Shawhurst, who sometimes gives you a lift in her cool white Jag.
>>>>>
>>>>> At home, don't throw bag in the corner of your bedroom like normal.
>>>>> Place it on the bed. Do home things. Forget about it. Until after
>> tea.
>>>>> Homework time. Can't do it. Stare at bag. Dare you? Unzip it? Just
>>>>> a bag. Like yours. But it's. Felicity's. Go on. Who'll know?
>>>>>
>>>>> Next day, Saturday, bite the bullet. You both have homework to do.
>>>>> Ride round on your Malvern Star, 3-speed Sturmey Archer gears.
>>>>> Kick/click down the stand, park on the nature strip out front.
>>>>> Heft bag, climb concrete front patio stairs. Breathe. Knock.
>>>>>
>>>>> Rehearse. Hi Mrs Shawhurst. I've brought round Felicity's bag ...
>>>>> Clunk. Door swings open to reveal not Mrs S but Felicity herself.
>>>>> In jeans, black t-shirt, barefoot, dark hair unponytailed,
>> shimmering.
>>>>> Hi ... I ... Oh, yes, she says, ducking inside, re-emerging
>>>>>
>>>>> with your tatty schoolbag. Stiff-armed threshold exchange.
>>>>> Thanks, she says, as she shuts. Turn. Allow two seconds to take
>>>>> in the view from up there (birches, bitumen, what did you expect?)
>>>>> And roll on home, heart returning to workaday beat.
>>>>>
>>>>> It's Sunday before you open the bag. Autograph book on top
>>>>> tumbles out. Is that how you packed it? Flick pages. Falls open
>>>>> at your form two class signatures. What's this? Around the biro
>>>>> impress of six foot heart-throb Jeff Saxby, a pink lipstick smudge
>>>>>
>>>>> bw
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuations 2 (UofAPress).
Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
Listen. If (UofAPress):
I go down to the Twilight Arcade
and watch the Martian invaders,
already appalled by our language,
pointing at what they want.
Bill Manhire
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