YOU ME AND THE BOOKSELLER

Some redrafts are swift, the faults obvious and the solution matter of fact, easy and satisfying. Not this though. This is definitely as work in progress. 

THE PRIZE GIVING

Our celebratory evening

marks the end of three years of study

There we were in the campus bookshop

you me and the book seller

It could have been a dream

some bibliophiles best fantasy

of course there was smoke

that’s why we huddled in the backroom

The formal celebration

went on around us without us

As we passed an ember from hand to hand

then another and then another

In honour of the occasion

we decided to award ourselves prizes

[in other less colourful circles

I think they call it stealing]

You chose Gunter Schuller on jazz

such a thick tome

Serious

so at odds with our evening

My eye fixed on Uncle the Elephant

a particular warm memory of my childhood

I have it still

the pages aged and yellowed

I read it to my children

but never told them how I acquired it

There are a number of things I am uncertain about this poem. I am not sure I set the scene effectively and I worry there is no resolution, just an memory that hinges on an old paperback. Watch this space.

Hurray For The Riff Raff has a new live album out.

Until next time.