Jonathan Chant
Caught Unawares
I spend a long time just looking, looking out of the bus window.
The skeletons hanging from the trees. Breathe it in, he says. Go on,
take a lung full... that's it. A brown bottle full of smoke.
Two roundels in the windshield where the tax disc should be.
Support Your Local Hells Angels. Free State of Avalon.
It's still early. Winter time and I'm happy.
There are other vehicles here. The truck next door. The guy who
owns it is thin and looks sick. Lives on chocolate bars and
cigarettes. Says he wants to be a mechanic. Just as well. His truck is
never going to run without trouble. Soon he will discover that it
has a cracked block. It's the type of van the Post Office used to use.
You don't see them anymore. Easy Access: Leyland EA.
It's parked behind a half-sized bus: an ex mobile library owned
by a guy with a big red beard. He wears a trilby hat with a plastic
badge pinned to it. Black with gold lettering. The Man From
U.N.C.L.E.
We all live at the end of a track. Packed in tight on a patch of
sandy ground.
Not far from here, there's a river that flows wide and green. It's
around the next bend in the track.
Tonight, the snow will come. It will catch us unawares.
Page(s) 21
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