Linda Black
Home Time
To get all that way home,
up the gravel path, out the front gate
along the ginnel, past the big school
which isn't for me - there's boys there -
past Home Farm, the Parade -
no liquorice comfits - means walking,
moving my legs, opening them
which is what I've tried
not to do all day, while Miss Armfelt
rattled on, since after lunch
when the pains really came. In the morning
as I mixed my paints, made brown
from dark, dark red and blue and added
a bit of black, I knew, kept
closed shut, waiting for the bell, glad
it wasn't me to fetch the milk
curdling against the tarmac; not me
to collect the pencils or recite
my nine times table standing up, my clothes
sticking to me. Maureen going on
about her new dress, Anita pestering me
half the long way back, crossing
Spencer Street by the dark arches,
I see, in the middle of the road,
a bloodied mess of quills
that didn't make it home.
up the gravel path, out the front gate
along the ginnel, past the big school
which isn't for me - there's boys there -
past Home Farm, the Parade -
no liquorice comfits - means walking,
moving my legs, opening them
which is what I've tried
not to do all day, while Miss Armfelt
rattled on, since after lunch
when the pains really came. In the morning
as I mixed my paints, made brown
from dark, dark red and blue and added
a bit of black, I knew, kept
closed shut, waiting for the bell, glad
it wasn't me to fetch the milk
curdling against the tarmac; not me
to collect the pencils or recite
my nine times table standing up, my clothes
sticking to me. Maureen going on
about her new dress, Anita pestering me
half the long way back, crossing
Spencer Street by the dark arches,
I see, in the middle of the road,
a bloodied mess of quills
that didn't make it home.
Page(s) 23
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