Thanks, Doug.
Bill
On Thu, 8 Jun 2017 at 12:48 am, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> 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
>
|