Yes, this gets us into the story sit happens right away, Bill.I think it’s much better, & part of the whole developing…
Doug
> On Mar 11, 2020, at 8:27 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
> Cracker night at Crouch’s (2)
>
>
> Crowded with lego pieces and meccano whatsits,
>
> Crouch’s kitchen bristled with red and yellow.
>
> Waxed Home Pride bread wrapping added orange
>
> Jamie leaned over the laminex table, wheezing.
>
> From somewhere under the house an engine burbled.
>
> Jamie’s mother could be heard pottering, somewhere else.
>
>
> Let’s go outside, I suggested.
>
> Hunks of fibreglass and metal
>
> landmined the unmowed backyard
>
> Footwear was essential. No back fence
>
> to mark off the yard from the lane behind.
>
> The very place for Guy Fawkes Night -
>
>
> Jumping Jacks popping on cracked concrete,
>
> the cordite stench of exploded penny bungers,
>
> eyes hauling into night sky tracking skyrockets
>
> launched from a brown beer bottle or lead pipe
>
> by Jamie’s older brother, Peter, obeying the directive to
>
> ‘Ignite the blue touch-paper and retire.’
>
>
> The bedrock bonfire blazed and sputtered,
>
> fed by garden trimmings and grey fence palings.
>
> Sparkler-lit words hung in the air while thoughts fizzed.
>
> A Catherine Wheel, nailed to the garage door,
>
> shed coloured sparks as it twirled and spat,
>
> leaving things not-quite-dark when it finished.
>
>
> Stringy, grey-white wicks linked our
>
> rippling green and red cracker keyboards.
>
> Jamie, bolting back from the detonation zone,
>
> lost a thong and never broke stride, landing
>
> back in it with his next still-running step.
>
> He stood, heaving, in his oversized hand-me-down shorts.
>
>
> The yard a week later still bore cracker detritus,
>
> remains of red print on damaged white paper,
>
> door scorch-marks, broken glass.
>
> Jamie plodded back to his Lego bricks.
>
> Started snivelling again.
>
> Mrs Crouch somewhere inside.
>
>
> bw
>
> 12.3.20
>
>
> Bill
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):
Done in by creation itself.
I mean the gods. Not us. Well us too.
The gods moved into books. Who wrote the books?
We wrote the books. In whose dream, then are we dreaming?
Robert Kroetsch
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