Dean Parkin
The Nature of Glass
He sees himself reflected in the window
of the corner video store and all life drifting
behind him like pale ghosts. The local paper
says a van has knocked down a schoolgirl
in a street he has passed along a thousand times.
The girl went to the same school he once did.
He revisits the road but there’s little evidence now,
just one yellow rose taped messily to a lamppost,
the road innocently quiet. Next day in the window
he waves at his reflection, glad he’s still there.
The TV news reports a murder in the town.
A 38-year-old man has been accused of killing
a woman, presumably his girlfriend. He knows
that part of the neighbourhood though, can guess
the kind of people involved. Next day,
pausing by the window, he sees the traffic
blurred to streaks of colour; a cyclist darts past,
a mother and pram stop for a moment.
At home a letter is waiting. His brother, it seems,
has an inoperable cancer, asks to see him, soon.
In the shop window a woman peeling a poster
from the smeary glass stifles a yawn. Outside
a man arrives. She smiles, she’s seen him before,
he’s always looking in, he even waved once.
She thinks she knows him. Did he used
to play football for her old boyfriend’s team?
But the man doesn’t notice her now,
seems unfocused, doesn’t even crack a smile
and she watches him move away, mirrored
in the empty florist’s shop across the road.
Page(s) 9
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