Counting
Once money flowed round us like friends,
Salaries, gifts, dividends.
A gurgle. The long party ends,
Each bank account dry as a throat,
Each rustle of bills a new note,
Alarm, as the rabbit meets stoat.
Wide headlights sweep on. Out of glare,
The bruises fade. Time to repair,
To count up loose change on the stair,
To queue in Co-ops with quiet old men,
Hoard slips for razor blades, find them
Flashed cheap, in corner shops you spurned.
It is a losing game, you feel,
With money lost which oiled the wheel
(At each slow crank the rust cogs squeal).
One post, a sudden legacy
Might cast this time to memory
A grey-lit dusk slid under sea,
When days of drudging wore your mind,
When walking’s warm wind blew, unsigned,
When neighbours spoke, when you were kind.
Salaries, gifts, dividends.
A gurgle. The long party ends,
Each bank account dry as a throat,
Each rustle of bills a new note,
Alarm, as the rabbit meets stoat.
Wide headlights sweep on. Out of glare,
The bruises fade. Time to repair,
To count up loose change on the stair,
To queue in Co-ops with quiet old men,
Hoard slips for razor blades, find them
Flashed cheap, in corner shops you spurned.
It is a losing game, you feel,
With money lost which oiled the wheel
(At each slow crank the rust cogs squeal).
One post, a sudden legacy
Might cast this time to memory
A grey-lit dusk slid under sea,
When days of drudging wore your mind,
When walking’s warm wind blew, unsigned,
When neighbours spoke, when you were kind.
Page(s) 27
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