Hugo Williams
The Pick-Up
The hardest part is conversation. That is
Always providing they both survive
The first shock of assault. The initial
Jolt. All doubt gone of a negative
Encounter, an enquiry as to the shortest
Route home. (A moment incidentally more
Unreal than sleep.) Both know they tread
Tightropes like duelists and to gore
The enemy is to fall on one’s sword.
Both guess at something more. The need
To escape. But the rules allow them
No more help. Now one must take the lead
And the hardest part begins. The same part
Played by the poet, all his senses alive
To the schemes in his head, the
Twicking of his thumbs, who yet cannot give
Through a certain reluctance to lie,
To commit himself. A virgin, his first
Words on the page will comprise
Their anxious overtures, carefully nursed
Into something like sanity by similar
Desires. Escape and the poem laid neat
In its place. Words having served their course
The heart goes back to its simple beat.
Page(s) 39-40
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