Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Poetry Library Southbank Centre - The Poetry Library housing the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre

« Previous item
Contents of this issue
Next item »

Tony Lucas

print this page

Alms

Sitting in the foyer, drinking coffee,
I could see the clarinettist where
he hunched to leeward of a statue’s plinth,
faint strains of ‘Stardust’ filtering from chill air,

and saw the tall guy in an open raincoat,
colour of buttermilk, passing with that
slight swift stoop to flick a weighted coin
so neatly in the woodwind’s upturned hat -

able, at once, to look magnaminous
and casual. You either have that art of slipping
in and out of easy condescension,
or have not. Same quandary as with tipping

Rather than deal with the embarrassment
of fumbling some inappropriate amount
into a palm much more discreet, to lug
two heavy bags all down the stairs will count,

for some of us, an easier way of getting
to the taxi rank. Yet that’s erroneous:
every cabbie springs another trap,
making us feel ripped off, or parsimonious.

Practice may help, or having enough to spare
that you don’t worry about margins. That’s not
the reason even buying The Big Issue
feels a challenge to avoid: it’s what

the whole transaction tells of status, class,
and any sort of guilt it may flush out
for seeming better off. Also about exposure,
how the self-conscious put themselves about.

Does giving money leave you feeling worse
or better? It will surely come across
in how it’s done. Easier to look stylish
if you basically don’t give a toss.

 


Tony Lucas lives and works in South London. His poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies here and in the USA. Two collections of his work have been published by Stride.

 

Page(s) 135-136

Back to top