Richard Bush
Trip to Work
I drop the kids off at the childminder’s
And I walk to work. It takes ten minutes.
Sometimes the stream which runs under the road
Is full and angry, surging round its corners
To the slower river. Sometimes the rain falls
Steadily and someone picks me up. The cars
Vary and are filled with papers or clothes
Or smells of their lives. I am dropped
At the gates generally, and I walk
To my mail which is rarely interesting.
As usual, I sit in assembly terrified.
Maybe it’s because of the time I went up Snowdon
On the train and, to everyone’s embarrassment,
Pissed myself, and the urine eventually
Reached the dusty floor and
In a slow and awful way darkened
The boards like blood and me and my dad,
We tried to hide it with our feet.
And I walk to work. It takes ten minutes.
Sometimes the stream which runs under the road
Is full and angry, surging round its corners
To the slower river. Sometimes the rain falls
Steadily and someone picks me up. The cars
Vary and are filled with papers or clothes
Or smells of their lives. I am dropped
At the gates generally, and I walk
To my mail which is rarely interesting.
As usual, I sit in assembly terrified.
Maybe it’s because of the time I went up Snowdon
On the train and, to everyone’s embarrassment,
Pissed myself, and the urine eventually
Reached the dusty floor and
In a slow and awful way darkened
The boards like blood and me and my dad,
We tried to hide it with our feet.
Page(s) 27
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