John Mole
Song without words
Who would have thought that those girls next door
had so much talk in them, or that to lie awake at 2a.m.
could be such entertainment, to hear the rise, the fall,
the counterpoint of a conversation filtered to wordlessness
through the wall between us. They are, by the sound of it,
exhaustedly happy beyond sleep, both as I guess
from yesterday’s wedding party high on the narrative
of their own future. To hammer with the bunched
fist or the flat-hand slap of a killjoy, forget it, this
will go on for some time as it must, the stop, the start,
the overlap, the shrilling canter of expectancy’s options
checked by a pause, the drop to contralto as perhaps
a thought of just cause or impediment occurs.
Oh my love, already asleep beside me, shut them up you said
before you drifted off, and sighed when I wanted
to give them a little longer. Could it be
that you’ve carried them into your dreams
and left me the gift of how all those years ago
we might have listened-in together, no less
joyfully awake with anticipation, setting our own words
to their muffled music? If so, thank you for that
and, if not, at least may we both look kindly on them,
two old-stagers who have chosen this hotel
to celebrate their anniversary, going down to breakfast.
John Mole’s latest collection is Counting the Chimes: New and Selected Poems, 1975–2003 (Peterloo). For many years he ran The Mandeville Press with Peter Scupham. Currently he is resident poet to the City of London. He has received Gregory, Cholmondeley and Signal (for children’s poetry) Awards.
Page(s) 48
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