Can’t quite
And you can’t quite wash the smell of nicotine off your fingers
and a friend comes out to you in the rush hour tube
and everyone at work is doing lines off the bar
and the articles on gay organ donation you want to write -
and your face on the cover of ID
and you cant quite answer your mobile
and the boy walks past and the girl
who swallowed the scissors
wont stop joking about rape –
and the contempt you have for angry people
and the Oxfam window your elbow craves to crack
and the calm period
where you wash your fingers
chuff your chin
and smoke another roll up.
Comments
markbrown | November 6, 2007 - 20:23
This is really, really great.
Desperate.
Cheers,
Mark
tcook | November 8, 2007 - 13:56
Agreed - and the images are really unusual but still utterly redolent. Excellent.
spack | November 9, 2007 - 17:45
(Repeated the same message three times. I have been on this site for half a decade and still I do not learn.)
spack | November 9, 2007 - 17:46
.
spack | November 9, 2007 - 17:47
I liked this. The rhythm seems just right. In particular, I liked the contempt you have for angry people.
One thought: something a little awkward in the phrasing of the second line. It's all those non-descript words: "comes out to you in the"
Oh yeah. And stop leaving your titles in the text of the poem. There. You've been told.
Thanks Han,
Joe