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Gun Chimes

by Trailer Star 

Posted: 05 June 2005
Word Count: 248


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On the far side of an evening
Of damp river grass and blinking streetlamps
Of dogs barking across the gardens
I sit and catch time in my hands

A fox slinks through the lamps
And out on the river's edge
As cats flicker under porch-lights
A wind-chime tinkles incessantly

An empty boat nudges the mud bank
As a cycle light bobs past
And above the city traffic a siren
Somewhere out of sight, out of mind

I miss your heartbeat mapping the hours
Between 5 a.m. and dawn
Your smell and taste before the light bursts
Across the closed curtains and empty cars

I would fish you out of that far city now
Pull you here through the wet grass
On a silver line woven tight
Between my fingers I'd cling tight to you

Feeling the lurch of each short embrace
The spinning flash of your eyes
Caught in that dark and matted weed
We'd tumble through the pitch black night

There are no sharks here any more
Just the drowsy glow of tropical fishtanks
The steady drip of distant music
From the disco boat's tannoy to engulf us

Dock leaves shiver with the blast
Of another crooner singing his heart out
Whilst somewhere further north blood is leaking
From another shattered chamber on to tarmac

I grip this line tighter and cling
To the safety of the known in everything
One false lunge, one hair trigger
And I too will empty myself on to the fox's grin.









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Comments by other Members



Trailer Star at 18:19 on 05 June 2005  Report this post
I have been writing poetry since the summer of 1981 when I discovered an 'American Poetry' section in my small town library and became entranced by William Carlos Williams.

In the years since the muse has visited and deserted me in equal ammounts and I'm currently attempting to put the horse back before the cart.

I live in Nottingham now and this poem reflects the atmosphere here through a slightly jaundiced middle-aged ex-painter's eyes....

Influences??

Too many to mention but Raymond Carver's name will always figure high on the list as would Sorley Maclean and Norman MacCaig...

Ticonderoga at 15:02 on 08 June 2005  Report this post
I could hear Tom Waits speaking this!! No higher praise.




Best,


Mike

Ticonderoga at 14:24 on 09 June 2005  Report this post
Shaun - I've just had a look at your comment above, and see you're a fan of Maclean and MacCaig; there has to be a Scottish connection! I'm from Edinburgh, and my mum's headmaster at Inch Primary in the Seventies was old Norman! I met him on a bus once, but was too young to know who the hell he was............

Best,


Mike

Ticonderoga at 14:41 on 09 June 2005  Report this post
Ah - I was in St Albans by then, so we wouldn't have coincided at all; if you'd stayed on a mere three years longer, you could have seen the triumphant Fringe premier of my play about Robert Louis Stevenson, 'Ultimate Islands'!

;-) Mike

Ticonderoga at 14:58 on 09 June 2005  Report this post
Yup; been here 14 years now! God knows how..........Coffee/drink some time? I'm just feeling about able to emerge from a self-imposed period of 'dryness', but can handle pubs on or off wagon!

Trailer Star at 15:14 on 09 June 2005  Report this post
Sadly I live in Nottingham sir! So have to put that drink on hold ..

Ticonderoga at 15:25 on 09 June 2005  Report this post
Ah!! No probs. Let me know if the collaboration comes to anything.


Best,

Mike


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