More a short film than a snapshot, Bill. Not sure about that passive in l 4. Wondering how the teller now feels about the assumed male power play etc.
Fizzles? No, but suggest an unsatisfying climax perhaps?
Doug
> On Oct 16, 2019, at 2:29 AM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Thanks, Sheila.
>
> Foreplay, yes but does it fizzle out unsatisfyingly I wonder.
>
> Bill
>
> On Wed, 16 Oct 2019 at 8:35 am, Sheila Murphy <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> How I hear you, Bill. Many elements brought in here. Lots of foreplay in
>> the narrative, as if to match the circumstance!
>> Thanks, Sheila
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 2:13 PM Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> The challenge 8
>>>
>>>
>>> O ask something else
>>>
>>> anything else
>>>
>>> My interrogator shook his head
>>>
>>> I was required to answer his question
>>>
>>> to answer it truthfully
>>>
>>> to answer it now
>>>
>>> in the presence
>>>
>>> short of family
>>>
>>> of all who I cared about most
>>>
>>>
>>> Truth or Dare
>>>
>>> Wilson’s Promontory
>>>
>>> 1974
>>>
>>> The interrogator
>>>
>>> my 18 year old best friend
>>>
>>>
>>> Have you
>>>
>>> he demanded
>>>
>>> welshed on our deal?
>>>
>>>
>>> The deal
>>>
>>> a private compact
>>>
>>> to share with each other first
>>>
>>> the name and circumstances
>>>
>>> of our first coupling
>>>
>>>
>>> And he had kept his part of the bargain
>>>
>>> a year or so before
>>>
>>> gushing about Italian Anita
>>>
>>> the supermarket packer
>>>
>>> who on the back doormat
>>>
>>> of the closed physics block at our school
>>>
>>> had expunged the hated V stain
>>>
>>> from his rampant person
>>>
>>>
>>> The dare?
>>>
>>> Jump through the plate glass window
>>>
>>> of our Tidal River holiday lodge
>>>
>>> School was out forever
>>>
>>>
>>> Well if you really want to know
>>>
>>> with whom I rode the 48 tram
>>>
>>> all the way to the city
>>>
>>> sadly the answer is
>>>
>>> never yet
>>>
>>> and with no one
>>>
>>> O I have gone a few stops
>>>
>>> been down to Dickens Supermarket
>>>
>>> on Doncaster Road
>>>
>>> and further along High St
>>>
>>> as far as Kew junction
>>>
>>> and once
>>>
>>> I even got down Bridge Road
>>>
>>> all the way to Punt
>>>
>>> but the city of dreams
>>>
>>> at this stage
>>>
>>> has been a bridge too far
>>>
>>>
>>> Happy now?
>>>
>>>
>>> I would have kept my end of the bargain
>>>
>>> if I had had anything to report
>>>
>>> But I had not
>>>
>>>
>>> until the night before
>>>
>>>
>>> and now the very vanquisher
>>>
>>> of my virginity
>>>
>>> lips pursed
>>>
>>> eyes fox-alert
>>>
>>> curled up in a beanbag
>>>
>>> in front of me as I spoke
>>>
>>>
>>> or failed to speak
>>>
>>>
>>> Bleary with beer
>>>
>>> I could no more come up with a transport metaphor
>>>
>>> than I could quote Thomas Hardy
>>>
>>> who might have replied
>>>
>>> that the answer lies in
>>>
>>> The abyss of undiscoverable things
>>>
>>>
>>> What actually happened
>>>
>>> I simply clammed up
>>>
>>> and the ‘game’ fizzled out
>>>
>>>
>>> bw
>>>
>>> 16.10.19
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):
ON THE LAKE
reeds
stalk
reeds
Nelson Ball
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