Bob Cooper
Behind Carol's Smile
Some come in nervous as the day she started here
overemphasising place-names when they finally sit down,
glancing at each other, unsure. Costa del Sol, Ibitha,
10% off Turkey or Florida, half-price to the Slovakian Alps.
Then She'll ask, Do you want a Hire Car? Half or full board?
She recognises the voices on the phone while booking flights.
In her lemon blouse and navy two piece, life is good,
listening, repeating anecdotes, advising on insurance.
She likes simple pleasures: eating mangoes in bed,
touching her naked self, then reading and smoking cigars.
She knows she can't go back, won't go where they go.
All those who saw her howl, the others who didn't call
when she'd sat for weeks, wouldn't recognise her now.
And when the shop's empty she imagines them
coming through the door, when she'll watch them looking,
picking brochures up, glancing briefly, putting them down,
frowning everywhere but where she sits as she waits.
overemphasising place-names when they finally sit down,
glancing at each other, unsure. Costa del Sol, Ibitha,
10% off Turkey or Florida, half-price to the Slovakian Alps.
Then She'll ask, Do you want a Hire Car? Half or full board?
She recognises the voices on the phone while booking flights.
In her lemon blouse and navy two piece, life is good,
listening, repeating anecdotes, advising on insurance.
She likes simple pleasures: eating mangoes in bed,
touching her naked self, then reading and smoking cigars.
She knows she can't go back, won't go where they go.
All those who saw her howl, the others who didn't call
when she'd sat for weeks, wouldn't recognise her now.
And when the shop's empty she imagines them
coming through the door, when she'll watch them looking,
picking brochures up, glancing briefly, putting them down,
frowning everywhere but where she sits as she waits.
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The