James Bell
Child To Parent
Are we in a tunnel
on a train
that does not turn corners
because they don’t
because they can’t
running, as they do
in long slow bending lines
like us sometimes
not running on time?
Why are your friends
as big as you
and mine non-existent?
They look at me
intelligently
as if I were some
deformed dwarf
as if I should be talking
about Wittgenstein
political matters
beyond my young mind
or plays and novels
I might get round to reading
in twenty years time.
I saw a fire -
it was only in my head -
my imagination.
Am I going mad
insane.
Am I only repeating
what I hear you say
each night in your sleep
when you take your name
mine and God’s
in vain?
Will that work of yours
ever be done
will people stop asking you soon
to write pages of
everything under the sun?
Am I precocious
or just a naturally
demanding phenomenon
like the person who came
to baby-sit that night said
and tucked me in bed early
to get fresh
with the boy she brought along
in your big bed?
Page(s) 82-83
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