Sick Leave
Every day I make the journey in my head,
back out of the drive, put in Atomic Blondie,
make way for the plasterer's van, signal left
and join the queue I'd have missed
if I'd left five minutes earlier. In Heworth
the sun dazzles me at the lights.
In East Parade I pretend not to notice
a group of pupils at the bus-stop.
Outside London's a dog crosses the road,
all lollopy, in no particular hurry.
In Layerthorpe the traffic's single file
and I lose five minutes I'd have saved
if I'd gone the other way, past The Retreat.
Today the guy with the interesting walk
and the curly hair is wearing blue.
Usually I see him further up,
leaving his council flat. In the rat run
that saves two sets of lights
I get stuck behind an open-topped bus.
There is a police car outside the Spread Eagle.
No-one wants to let me out of the turning.
At the pelican I watch the Year 11s
queue for cigarettes and chocolate bars
to get them through the morning.
By the Crown Court geese amble across.
I feel like one of those Hamlet cigar ads.
that got banned. The woman with the blond wig
totters past in a tight leather skirt, the sun
decides getting up was a bad idea.
Oliver and Daniel cross the bridge,
Mark pushes his bike. I look up
at Baillie Hill where a rope swings
from a tree and think of Tom,
years ago it seems, up there like the pied piper
looking across the city through blue smoke
when he should have been in double maths.
In Bishopthorpe Road a man sets out bicycles
and I want to buy one and ride away.
But I'm sandwiched between
two colleagues waiting for green,
wondering if I'll be just in time after all
for briefing with the contents of my pigeonhole
in my lap and a view from the window
of trees just coming into leaf and beyond
cars heading for Scarborough and Leeds.
back out of the drive, put in Atomic Blondie,
make way for the plasterer's van, signal left
and join the queue I'd have missed
if I'd left five minutes earlier. In Heworth
the sun dazzles me at the lights.
In East Parade I pretend not to notice
a group of pupils at the bus-stop.
Outside London's a dog crosses the road,
all lollopy, in no particular hurry.
In Layerthorpe the traffic's single file
and I lose five minutes I'd have saved
if I'd gone the other way, past The Retreat.
Today the guy with the interesting walk
and the curly hair is wearing blue.
Usually I see him further up,
leaving his council flat. In the rat run
that saves two sets of lights
I get stuck behind an open-topped bus.
There is a police car outside the Spread Eagle.
No-one wants to let me out of the turning.
At the pelican I watch the Year 11s
queue for cigarettes and chocolate bars
to get them through the morning.
By the Crown Court geese amble across.
I feel like one of those Hamlet cigar ads.
that got banned. The woman with the blond wig
totters past in a tight leather skirt, the sun
decides getting up was a bad idea.
Oliver and Daniel cross the bridge,
Mark pushes his bike. I look up
at Baillie Hill where a rope swings
from a tree and think of Tom,
years ago it seems, up there like the pied piper
looking across the city through blue smoke
when he should have been in double maths.
In Bishopthorpe Road a man sets out bicycles
and I want to buy one and ride away.
But I'm sandwiched between
two colleagues waiting for green,
wondering if I'll be just in time after all
for briefing with the contents of my pigeonhole
in my lap and a view from the window
of trees just coming into leaf and beyond
cars heading for Scarborough and Leeds.
magazine list
- Features
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- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The