Martin Worster
Waiting For Something To Happen
With no real feelings on the matter
And a cigarette hung from her experienced lips,
She’s feeding machines in the local launderette,
Shoveling for all she’s worth
Like a fireman on a steam engine.
It’s her day off.
He’s laid out on a lie-low, adrift
On Spanish sand and slowly cooking in the Sun;
Stunned by bikini-bums and beer, prone
And arms akimbo like a freshly fallen soldier,
Or a butterfly too beautiful.
He’s on business.
There was nothing really special about it.
Anticipated thrill dissolved to nakedness and loss,
The sense of self dripping through the mattress,
Condensing on the windows. Slippery smells.
Cigarettes flare in the darkness.
They can’t sleep.
This one’s an executive, six days a week,
Sinking through the coffee fumes and deafening
Sunday papers, chest heaving, briefcase never far away.
Stilettos always at the ready, her eyes fixed
On a dwindling point in the distance.
She’s tired.
They are watching all channels at once,
Flying through a shifting landscape of improbabilities
In the arms of the sitting room couch,
The remote or the wine glass their only real choice,
One eye always on the lottery.
They are lost.
He’s feeling uneasy. His life is going well.
Happy marriage, kids, house and climbing frame.
He’s dodging the bullets, driving the train, and yet
Somehow there’s a space between these things,
A sense of going further that just isn’t there.
He’s missed it.
Still waiting for something to happen.
Page(s) 2-3
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