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1: LOOKING OUT EASTWARDS
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Pulling the curtain aside, looking
for the revelation of the day not
yet come but seeing its promise,
opening the window and looking
out eastwards seeing the banks
of grey, writing my gospel here,
pulling the days aside looking
for validation, transformation of
the ordinary days lived carelessly,
shuffling them into a new order
as though, in themselves, they
were not light enough nor full
nor good enough, seeing out there
a dull mottle covering the higher
cloud as if it were smoke drifted
here from the vast fire of the sun.
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2: SEMI-SOLID
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i
Shoals of objects on my operating table,
arrested in motion like a stopped film,
point away from me, the clock on its
back is face up. I am the sorcerer’s
apprentice and will dance with them,
their soft grey doubles weakening
as I lift them, move across the surface,
then the fuzzy shadows disappear, the
stapler, tape dispenser, pens
will bounce all day from hand to
tablecloth, but now, before that starts
I look at them waiting in their gleaming
plastic forms and feel something born
of the looking: everything the eye
touches, touches the heart.
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3: COOING AND TURNING TURTLE
=============================
i
Jean-Pierre fell for a married
woman, wooed and won her,
in an absence of morality
they took a lorry and emptied
the house where she lived
of furniture and sold it.
When the husband came home,
said Jean-Pierre,
ooooo
ooooo
laughing, the whole house
was bare, nothing there at all.
They bought food and wine
and rented a flat for six
weeks, where they stayed
in bed until the police caught
up with them. We know
nothing of the woman, but
oooo
oooo
J-P came to the UK, apparently
the code Napoleon allows
for self exile, after ten years
the miscreant can return
home with no risk of charges
being laid. He gambled
a great deal, then got
a job as night watchman
oooo
oooo
guarding a safe, which was
not particularly so under his
gaze. When his need became
extreme he stole a modest
percentage of the money in it.
What had stirred this scruple?
Who knows? But he felt
the virtue of it, I could have taken
ooo
ooo
everything, he said, resenting
the fact that they fired him,
and also that they kept his passport.
He worked overnight in a bakery,
listening to comedy on French radio.
He was vain and even if it was freezing
he would not button his suede coat,
oooo
oooo
Because, he said, it looks better
open. He had been tormented
by the need for sex, and for a while
seduced only fat girls, because they
didn’t take long to conquer and were
grateful. He cooked well, and told
his story handsomely.
oooo
oooo
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4: GLISTENING AND TRANSPORTING
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oooooooooo
v.
ooooooooooooooPutting one foot
oooooooooooooooooooafter the other
oooooooooooo oooooooooooooin our minds,
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooas it
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowere
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooootesting the
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ground,
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooseeing
oooooooooooooooooooo if it would
ooooooooooooohold,
ooooooooooobut not
ooooo ooohaving the
oooooooonecessary
oooooooooequipment
ooooooooooto monitor
ooooooooootthe
oooooooooooostability,
ooooooooooooooalways
oooooooooooooooogoing back
oooo and
ooothen
oooro going
oooooooo back
oooooooooooto soon, or
oooooooooooooooo late,
ooooooooooooooooooand it
ooooooooooooooooooo was
ooooooooooooonot the road
oooooooooooooooothat was
oooooooooooooooowrong it
ooooooooooooowas the
oooooooincessant
oooodoubt that
oocoloured
oooooooooooand
oooooooooooodistorted
oooooooooooooooooooo it,
Sophia Wellbeloved Poetry 