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----------------------------------------------------------------------Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 06:31:21 +0100From: Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]>Subject: Re: Lamb snapsThanks Bill gave me an early morning chuckle -P did Charles Lamb cross yourpath? Lamb and cross makes me think of Lamb and erasure... http://www.thethepoetry.com/2012/06/interview-with-matthea-harvey/ Finnegan -----Original Message----- From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Douglas Barbour Sent: 29 April 2014 22:45 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Lamb snaps I like the way the story ends, Bill (but wonder if it reads a bit too much like a story). Some neat turns along the way, though. ' Doug On Apr 29, 2014, at 3:34 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Lamb chops > > Lambs lap my life. First Leslie: > Miss Lamb, young, pony-tailed, > high school teacher of physics. > (a subject I should have taken) > At Balwyn Baths she wore > a red bikini on swimming > sports day. At Wilson's Prom > she led form six study campers > to the peak of windy Mt Oberon. > > Next, gruff bespectacled Ted Lamb > a Class 9 federal public servant, > interrogated me when he learned > I was to be a member of his tertiary > education assistance team while > still having an outstanding student > overpayment. Are you serious about > this work? Yes. Well that, he rasped, > will come out of your first pay cheque. > > Six months later, one postcode away, > son of Lamb, Andrew, would snot me > with a left right combination Yarraside post Bureau of Stats Booze > Cruise. > Why? I had ripped, daintily, I thought, but yes, deliberately, the > front pocket of the Neat and Trim blue uniform of Bev Lamb, his > clerical wife. > While she was yet in it. > > I was merely illustrating its torn-ness, the uniform to me the office > equivalent of overalls. But Andy, with a cruise afternoon of ales in > him, saw an assault and launched his fistic barrage. Hands dragged me > away from the Lamb fury as I tried vainly to explain. My first and > only black eye took a week to heal. > > Robert Lamb, a different kind > of enforcer, a smiling killer in a grey suit, wheel-in school > principal, curer of alleged staff underachievement, entered lamb-like > enough, consulted individually and collectively, before granting us > what we seemed to want. > Certainty. Robert ripped into a benign Asian girl for being out of > uniform. > > Reduced her to tears. Then called her > into his office when apprised of his > overreaction. Apologised and asked > about her photographic ambitions. > Pulled a heckler out from assembly > and summarily expelled him. Insisted > all stand when he entered a room. > And he entered all rooms. Systematically. > To this Lamb I tendered my resignation. > > bw > 30.4.14