Jeremy Robson
In Focus
Then the chance encounter
makes you measure:
not the jaded fake
loitering in windows,
hair thin, lines asunder.
Not that impostor. More
the sudden eyes of others,
the bloated school-friend
run across in Oxford Street
who asks : 'What do you do now ?'
Exams, soccer fields,
eager fourth-form hands
rise up a world away, fade:
the first eleven photo
yellow beyond belief.
'I write', you stumble.
Then another:
'How're you getting along?'
His eyes persist, run
you up and down, Move on
move on, you tell yourself.
Too late. You're back
in focus, in the photo again,
third from the left.
He offers his card.
Move now move
your sixth sense warns, quick
before the next friend
greets you in the next street,
the next ghost
meets you in the next glass,
and the next voice
toneless on your own tongue
recoils, turns tail, retreats.
Page(s) 271
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