John Greeves
The Date
He's spent a long time preparing for his date.
Wants to impress her with Motor Cycle Diaries,
a Brazilian film with English subtitles.
Knows nothing about Che Guevara,
revolutionary fervour, C.I.A., life in the fifties,
because he wasn't born then.
He's of another generation, trailing his feet in circles,
trying to remember what she said last week.
Digging hands into pockets, hoping she'll arrive soon.
Tried picturing her face,
tugged at battered jeans for reassurance.
Allowed languid laces to lick the floor.
He's sat on concrete bollards, walked back and forth, kicked at air,
contorted his face like a sponge, wrung out droplets of despair,
saw girls pass by.
Leant against a pillar, crouched in uncertainty,
glanced into cabs and buses,
never doubting her, when she arrived forty-two minutes late.
Wants to impress her with Motor Cycle Diaries,
a Brazilian film with English subtitles.
Knows nothing about Che Guevara,
revolutionary fervour, C.I.A., life in the fifties,
because he wasn't born then.
He's of another generation, trailing his feet in circles,
trying to remember what she said last week.
Digging hands into pockets, hoping she'll arrive soon.
Tried picturing her face,
tugged at battered jeans for reassurance.
Allowed languid laces to lick the floor.
He's sat on concrete bollards, walked back and forth, kicked at air,
contorted his face like a sponge, wrung out droplets of despair,
saw girls pass by.
Leant against a pillar, crouched in uncertainty,
glanced into cabs and buses,
never doubting her, when she arrived forty-two minutes late.
Page(s) 59
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