May 6
NOW THE WORLD HAS COME BETWEEN US
She lay still
(perfectly still)
eyes wide open
like a doll’s.
Her husband
lay beside her
“eyes wide shut”
(the phrase came to her) .
She smiled secretly
to her self
imagining he (Tom
her husband)
was “the” Tom
Cruise.
“Mmmmm! ”
she relished the thought.
“Mmmmmm! ”
she cried aloud.
“Australia! ”
she said as if answering
a question
in a quiz.
The stain growing
from his head
resembled
(for all the world)
“Australia! ”
There was no need
to phone a friend
or go for
50/50.
“Australia! ”
she said decisively
(so sure of her self) .
“Hey...it’s ok! ”
the stranger bending over her
told her.
She believed
in the voice
in what the voice
told her.
It was warm
and husky ‘round the edges
like her Daddy
when she was little.
Her knee
pained her.
“God...” how it
pained her.
“What’s your name...love? ”
the voice cajoled her.
She had to re-focus
to make the voice visible..
...lights...coloured...
...flashing lights...
dancing
like a chat up
in a disco
under a glittering ball.
“Oh you are handsome! ”
she told him.
“I am indeed! ”
the ambulance man agreed.
“Alan Handsome...how
did you guess? ”
She felt herself
blush to her roots.
She turned her head
looking at her husband’s head
the stain that was
Australia
had imperceptibly become
South America
then a badly blurred
early map of the world.
Then she closed her eyes
and the world went away.
*
Both my friends survived this you will be pleased to know. This was related to me over tea and biscuits when she was dandling her new baby on her knee on a particularly sunny morning that was all innocence and sunshine. I didn't write at the time but the story sunk inside me and fought its way out into this telling after tunnelling through the years and years to reach the proper brain cell that would put it into words...and a synapse later that horrible night found itself trapped in my words.
The title comes from Hank Cochran's MAKE THE WORLD GO AWAY...she used always sing her own words to it and this is what was going 'round and 'round in her mind as they were having a row before the crash. It was the Jim Reeves version she liked best.
She lay still
(perfectly still)
eyes wide open
like a doll’s.
Her husband
lay beside her
“eyes wide shut”
(the phrase came to her) .
She smiled secretly
to her self
imagining he (Tom
her husband)
was “the” Tom
Cruise.
“Mmmmm! ”
she relished the thought.
“Mmmmmm! ”
she cried aloud.
“Australia! ”
she said as if answering
a question
in a quiz.
The stain growing
from his head
resembled
(for all the world)
“Australia! ”
There was no need
to phone a friend
or go for
50/50.
“Australia! ”
she said decisively
(so sure of her self) .
“Hey...it’s ok! ”
the stranger bending over her
told her.
She believed
in the voice
in what the voice
told her.
It was warm
and husky ‘round the edges
like her Daddy
when she was little.
Her knee
pained her.
“God...” how it
pained her.
“What’s your name...love? ”
the voice cajoled her.
She had to re-focus
to make the voice visible..
...lights...coloured...
...flashing lights...
dancing
like a chat up
in a disco
under a glittering ball.
“Oh you are handsome! ”
she told him.
“I am indeed! ”
the ambulance man agreed.
“Alan Handsome...how
did you guess? ”
She felt herself
blush to her roots.
She turned her head
looking at her husband’s head
the stain that was
Australia
had imperceptibly become
South America
then a badly blurred
early map of the world.
Then she closed her eyes
and the world went away.
*
Both my friends survived this you will be pleased to know. This was related to me over tea and biscuits when she was dandling her new baby on her knee on a particularly sunny morning that was all innocence and sunshine. I didn't write at the time but the story sunk inside me and fought its way out into this telling after tunnelling through the years and years to reach the proper brain cell that would put it into words...and a synapse later that horrible night found itself trapped in my words.
The title comes from Hank Cochran's MAKE THE WORLD GO AWAY...she used always sing her own words to it and this is what was going 'round and 'round in her mind as they were having a row before the crash. It was the Jim Reeves version she liked best.
