Brian White
The Plotholder
Were you to observe him
in the old chair by the hearth,
veined feet on the threadbare rug
in the ramshackle house
with the smell of dog
and the bath full of vegetables,
hobnail boots,
polished on Sundays,
by the side of his chair,
sucking asthmatically
on a dottle-stained briar,
wheezing out the acrid whiff
of rough shag, spitting
into the flames,
you would not believe
that on his plot
at the end of the road, through
the cool damp railway arch
where the paths run straight
and clean between the
moist warm greenhouses
dripping with the rich perfume
of tomatoes, the tawny gold
of chrysanthemums, lush
green coiling cucumbers
and outside, rows and rows
of dahlias, nodding pom poms
in the soft summer breezes,
by the grace of his green fingers,
he was king, a demi-god.
in the old chair by the hearth,
veined feet on the threadbare rug
in the ramshackle house
with the smell of dog
and the bath full of vegetables,
hobnail boots,
polished on Sundays,
by the side of his chair,
sucking asthmatically
on a dottle-stained briar,
wheezing out the acrid whiff
of rough shag, spitting
into the flames,
you would not believe
that on his plot
at the end of the road, through
the cool damp railway arch
where the paths run straight
and clean between the
moist warm greenhouses
dripping with the rich perfume
of tomatoes, the tawny gold
of chrysanthemums, lush
green coiling cucumbers
and outside, rows and rows
of dahlias, nodding pom poms
in the soft summer breezes,
by the grace of his green fingers,
he was king, a demi-god.
Page(s) 58
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