Monday 22 November 2010

At the bus stop

After the skittles
the old man peels an apple
and dreams of the past

In the window
of the shop for second-hand books
the gray cat sleeps in the afternoon sun

And over the street
the girl pegs out the sheets and pyjamas
of a concentration camp victim now grown old

While in the flat above
a cantankerous old fool is on a TV comedy show

And below on the corner
a modern-day minstrel strums a euphonious elegy

And a spider dies in his cap

A man on a bicycle cycles past
with a string of onions over his handlebars
and a rose in his mouth

In a garden
a bird eats hemlock

The sound of a train is heard from a distance

And above City Hall
in a symphony of light
the last flying saucer is consumed by flames

The old man looks at his wrist

And sees that the bus
is late

______
gw2010

9 comments:

  1. So many good poems added ...i especially like the poignancy in 'Last Tram', this one and "On the Green Hills Far Away"

    Great set,

    btw, i couldn't make out which post you were saying at Kuni-san's...but thanks anyway for reading, Gwilym :)

    wishes,
    devika

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  2. This is brilliant, Gwilym. So many images - each could spawn their own poem!

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  3. This is one of the benefits of waiting for buses - time to observe and take note. Brings it all to life!

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  4. I like the way this one evolves from memories to imaginings. At least I assume the spacecraft was imagined.

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  5. wonderful. particularly the "And a spider dies in his cap"

    that saucer at the end was a surprise. I prefer to think it was real. but no more important than anything else happening in the poem.

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  6. Devika,
    Thanks. I was saying in passing I'd seen your last blogpost.

    Gordon,
    Thanks and thanks also for my poem today on your Martian blog!

    Jim and Clown,
    He's an old man day-dreaming of course. And the symbols of dreams arise. But the clues to his identity involve an apple, the holocaust, the potential seducer and a space visitor destroyed. The cat (or sphinx) asleep is ancient the guardian of the knowledge (the old books).
    I know it's a bit vague. But in dreams the meaning of things, we may say the clues, are often so.

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  7. Okay Gwilym...i's not sure of which blog or post you were talking about. I was wondering if it was Socio-Political or Certain Kind, anyway, obliged :)


    wishes,
    devika

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  8. Devika, it was the SP item I liked.

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