"chasis" poems
Down behind the communal garages,
Our knees were scabbed and scarred,
Badges of honour, to ten-year old savages,
Earnt in chasis' of burnt out cars.
There, on the side of a wall,
Nineteen-Sixteen, had been daubed in emulsion,
Just another target for our ball,
To find its meaning ? we had no compulsion.
It was a circular Nine, like a giant comma,
And the Six was rotund, as well,
Against all the rules Sister Mary of the Immaculate Madonna
taught, in those hand-writing classes from hell.
It was similar to a giant 1690,
I'd seen in another part of town,
On the gable-end of a property emptied,
Before an our street versus your street showdown.
Then one day, the Old Fella' explained,
In 1916 we stood up for ourselves,
A pride in our nation regained,
As the G.P.O. was shook to its shelves.
"Son, we tired of crawling on our belly,
Being beaten, battered and conned,
Surely you've heard me talk of Connolly ?"
I said, Yeh he's me favourite James Bond.
But this was Liverpool, Nineteen Seventy-Two,
And me Da' had been over here years,
What he was on about, I never had a clue,
Though it was the first time I ever saw him shed tears.
Mar 16, 2016
Mar 16, 2016 at 5:00 PM UTC
He waited, as one should, for her to finish crying.
They saw Back to the Future 2 earlier,
Honestly, not that great if you ask me,
"Marty screams the whole **** movie"
he said folding the picnic mat,
lights turning on around them
leading bodies into parking lots
into chasis and roads
into her street and front porch
into a phrase that started with
"Listen..."
and ended with "I'm sorry"
She finished crying,
"I'm sorry" he said again, softly,
his hand reaching for hers
but there was no hand
no velvety skin to say goodbye
"I guess..." she started but stopped
He stood beside her
the grass filled with mosquitoes
trees sunk in the background as he sped away.
Behind him, dimming in the distance,
her figure with hands crossed
the figure of a woman who laughed
and cared,
and enjoyed silence
as she enjoyed Parks and Rec
the woman who didn't care
about his loudness
or his lectures on Star Wars
and Vonnegut
the woman who disappeared in the distance.
Aug 19, 2015
Aug 19, 2015 at 12:47 PM UTC