Echoing appreciation of others, Max, especially the nice shift at the end.
The hour is telling, the slipper movements a fine recalled detail.
My own mother, now restricted to whatever Vision Australia has put on
disc, due to her debilitating macular degeneration, told me excitedly about
Geoff Page's 60 Classic Australian Poems and it is very good. Finally she
is getting something better than Jeffrey Archers.
Bill
On Wednesday, 3 February 2016, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Reading Matter
>
> The town Free Library was too far.
> From a local shop much nearer us
> my mother read, for a shilling
> or so a time, ‘women’s books’.
>
> Came the day when: Would I
> return them when I cycle past,
> and get some more? - How will
> I know what you’ve read already?
>
> Son, you’ve noticed for months
> my usual reading matter,
> even looked inside some.
> If in doubt, bring George Sava.
>
> She only had an afternoon hour
> to read anything at all.
> I watched her slippers lift
> and settle on the sunporch stool,
>
> the pages turn, sunlight shift
> slowly towards evening.
> Almost an hour in, she’d say:
> Have I read this already?
>
> Page one you’d think had told her.
> Old George still turns up in junk shops.
> Bland doctor’s stories for middle-brows.
> Retired, I read my afternoons away,
>
> serious demanding stories, some
> by doctors. Almost an hour in,
> however, I pull back, often:
> Have I read this already?
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