Ian Caws
Jimmy's Song
'There was, I recall, a short order cook
And one, strangely, who’d appeared in a film
As “second man in bar”. But neither spoke.
So we just waited in the autumn calm
For Jimmy, who had a new song
About winning, about losing.
Often, he'd be sitting in the corner,
Looking for the minute hand to touch twelve;
With guitar and electronic tuner,
He'd open his repertoire like a valve.
Jimmy's chair that night stayed vacant:
To sit there didn't seem decent.
Then the short order cook became restless
And the man who’d appeared in a film left;
The Black Horse sign creaked from a sense of loss
Though outside, in the garden, someone laughed.
Blackbirds stole notes in the warn mist
From the song Jimmy had promised.
The song remained Jimmy's though never played
And people talked of it though never heard.
They looked for a successor; none applied
Except the film man and he wasn't hired.
Jimmy, they said, had moved away
Though where, nobody knew, or why.
And one, strangely, who’d appeared in a film
As “second man in bar”. But neither spoke.
So we just waited in the autumn calm
For Jimmy, who had a new song
About winning, about losing.
Often, he'd be sitting in the corner,
Looking for the minute hand to touch twelve;
With guitar and electronic tuner,
He'd open his repertoire like a valve.
Jimmy's chair that night stayed vacant:
To sit there didn't seem decent.
Then the short order cook became restless
And the man who’d appeared in a film left;
The Black Horse sign creaked from a sense of loss
Though outside, in the garden, someone laughed.
Blackbirds stole notes in the warn mist
From the song Jimmy had promised.
The song remained Jimmy's though never played
And people talked of it though never heard.
They looked for a successor; none applied
Except the film man and he wasn't hired.
Jimmy, they said, had moved away
Though where, nobody knew, or why.
Page(s) 30
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 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