With self-timer
When there is only the two of you
in the agora, temple or gilded ruin,
and because memory will play tricks,
you find a convenient ledge
or post or wall to steady the camera,
and there fiddle with the buttons
and available light to trap her pouting self
in the viewfinder until she is sprouting
no branches and not losing her head,
as you carefully leave a space
on her left or right to occupy,
a void to hold you which compensates
for your awkward height and width,
making what you have framed one-sided
with her smiling on and off,
waiting for the enveloping arm,
the hug, the extra weight of you beside her,
while you work against the clock.
in the agora, temple or gilded ruin,
and because memory will play tricks,
you find a convenient ledge
or post or wall to steady the camera,
and there fiddle with the buttons
and available light to trap her pouting self
in the viewfinder until she is sprouting
no branches and not losing her head,
as you carefully leave a space
on her left or right to occupy,
a void to hold you which compensates
for your awkward height and width,
making what you have framed one-sided
with her smiling on and off,
waiting for the enveloping arm,
the hug, the extra weight of you beside her,
while you work against the clock.
Page(s) 61
magazine list
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- Poetry London (1951)
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- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
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- Shearsman
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- South
- Staple
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