Poem 6 - Music Lesson

Photo:Sally Douglas

Music Lesson

The child is sitting on a chair

in a hall

in a sea of brown lino

She holds her brown bag

tight to her tight chest

as the clock ticks and ticks and never tocks

and the lodgers walk through the long hall

and up the stairs

and never come down.

She swings her legs tick tick

kick kick

so they stay awake

She swings her legs

one two one two

and one and two and three and four and

major scales crawl

under the door and

up the stairs

and down the stairs

and back under the door

and the small brass clock

under its small glass dome

which she cannot see

because it is

on top of the piano

on the other side of the door

counts on.

Sally Douglas

The poem about time (Poem 4 - Seven Glances at Time) reminded me of some notes I had made a while back about a childhood memory, so I dug them out. This is the poem.

Released Poem 2: Jigsaw

Jigsaw

The kitchen floor is cold.

It aches my legs.

A girl is scattered
all around:

eyes, arms, fingers,

wispy hair.

Mummy’s high above me,

humming,

watching sky,

paddling clouds of bubbles

with her hands.

And suddenly – did I do that? –

the girl’s joined up.

It’s magic

like the yellow kitchen cupboard

with the bathroom

through its back.

I’m bigger now

bigger than

God.

Sally Douglas 

Released Poem 1: Reunion

Reunion

Remember summer. Hours

of slanting sun

rising like a lever, hot

and long enough to move a world.

                                                                                                        

All the way to breaktime

its dry tide rose behind me,

scorching the slow fields of morning

until all the paths were gone.

You’d pop the silver top down

with your thumb,

post the straw and suck

your milk.

I’d hold back, hold breath:

gauging the heat-gap’s smallest slenderness

between warm glass, damp skin.

Feel the clotting of my throat.

If you were here

       you might

          remember this.

Sally Douglas