We’ve turned the romance down a fraction.
Is there much anticipation? Hardly —
online love’s a bit of a transaction.
He asks me to dinner, I choose coffee.
His messages aren’t dim, I might like him.
Still, I’ll turn the romance down a fraction —
it’s quite likely that, in person, we’ll see
that our written rapport is far too slim.
Luckily online love’s a transaction
and I can later block him, or he me;
we’ll move on with a smile, and wit and vim,
redirecting the romance a fraction.
Since we each have to pay that monthly fee
like veg box subscriptions or the gym,
online love is basically a transaction.
Could this be real attraction? Surely that’s free.
Oh damn those six months I bought on a whim.
It’s time to turn the romance down a fraction,
for the sake of those future transactions.
I see her
being stung by the bumble bee
on the windowsill she
was told not to play with.
Then chicken pox, being sick.
Drinking warm water to fix her tummy –
really mummy?
Shutting the door to her room
to keep the monsters out.
Waking up in the night to find
her parents not about
and the lady next door there instead.
That little boy at nursery
slapping play-dough
over one eye: I’m a pirate!
Scrambling over the wall towards
the field at the bottom of the garden.
In her red shorts, J’ai pas d’culotte
Led back into the house,
getting dressed not quite mastered yet.
The swings at bluebell time:
a neighbour with long curly hair
and armfuls full of them. Was it legal then?
Louise and her red wellies.
Being allowed in the tractor.
Winnie the Pooh on the radio, sat
at the table near the window
site of that bee attack.
Mousey the pony trotting off
with a shrieking cousin on his back.
First school day, at lunch,
assigned to an older girl: Would you like seconds?
I remember
my confused look at the clock.
Thank you to BBC News Magazine for a fascinating piece on the volunteer doctors currently saving lives in Greece. See it here.
It reminded me of this, which I wrote in early 2012, in response to the endless news reports about the Greek economy that I kept waking up to (more fool me for my choice of alarm clock radio station).
To be clear (dangerous and difficult where poems are concerned), I am not belittling the situation of those suffering the consequences of austerity in Greece, rather I am raising an eyebrow at the system that makes it so.
So:
Switching off the news*
I don’t know what they’re thinking
when they say that Greece is sinking.
All those commentators complaining
about people who are marching
would do better to check the satellite imaging
to see if it’s still there.
So I don’t know what they’re thinking
when they say that Greece is sinking:
take a flight over Athens at night
and you’ll see its lights a-twinkling.
It is definitely still there.
No I don’t know what they’re thinking
when they say that Greece is sinking;
yes the economy is bleeding
and those on gardening leave, weeding.
But ask any geologist & they’ll tell you
its landmass isn’t going anywhere
fast.
*The title is inspired by a Wendy Cope poem called ‘Unbearable or Things that make me switch the radio off’.
And yes, I have now switched station to wake up to.
Barboured and booted against another wet day,
chatty and helpful he led us away.
He pointed to a landmark we’d already seen
on a part of the walk where we’d only just been.
A mile or so darker our footsteps (re)traced
the consequences of good sense, sadly misplaced.
All because we couldn’t quite make ourselves say
how we weren’t quite sure this was quite the right way.
Do you have a passion for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? Since starting at the Story Museum in Oxford (where I work as the Museum’s Content Shepherdess) I’ve noticed that some of my most creative friends do. I’m starting to wonder if there is a connection…
Alice was never one of my favourites – I blame the Disney illustrations of Alice as a blonde, I just never identified as a child (I was much more into Matilda or, funnily enough, the BFG’s Sophie). Maybe that is why I didn’t grow up to be a designer, unlike Philip, Lucy, Eun… Or maybe it was because I was never meant to be a designer that I didn’t like the book? Hmmm. Not a very scientific investigation so far; any further comments on this most welcome.
I have also been learning many wonderlandish things about the book and its author – Lewis Carroll – including his real name, ‘day job’ and hobbies; that the book pokes fun at the rigid Victorian education system and that the Hatter is never called the Mad Hatter in the book, only his tea party is. And come to think of it, the tea party isn’t his at all, but happens outside the March Hare’s house.
Alice is apparently one of the most translated texts in the world. From Oxford to Korea and Brazil, the story has travelled a long way in its 150 years – perhaps no surprise then if a fair bit has been lost in translation along the way.
In celebration of the anniversary of the first telling of Alice’s adventures – by a certain Charles Dodgeson to one Alice Liddell – and of its many interpretations since, the Story Museum is hosting a touring exhibition of illustrations of Alice that features artists from all over the world. Barely a blonde Alice in sight.
The Museum has developed two supporting ‘activity rooms’ where visitors can enjoy the story and experience our interpretation of the Hatter’s tea party. I was lucky enough to be involved in commissioning and planning the activity rooms. And so am extra pleased to share a couple of photos here, as well as a picture of the main exhibition.
The Caper Press 