TROUT   [ 2 ]


  Gallery


1 Starting Point

you lean against
a doorway

& draw your cigarette
three times

before exiting
the frame

you're now
located in a car

which screeches
round a bend

in a flash of silver


2 On Tour

you take bus tours
& 'scenic trips'

& make friends
with the land

its green hills
& deft trickle of river

you become slow close
you can even

speak the language
as you leave

"I'll record it,"
you think

but which scenes
you forget ...


3 The Discovery

it's night

& you whisper in
her ear,

"everything's fine"

as you lift the sheet
to find her curve

& you want
your words to touch her

in a way your hands
never can


4 The Return

you park the car
& the boot pops open

several men with bags
scurry across the pavement

& as the light
replaces your shadow

you reflect
on the journey

how it takes you
& how it sets you back...


5 Voyeur

"this is upside down,"
you think

& replace the slide

the projector makes
another click

& then 'you see
for yourself'

how the circumference
of her shadow

leads in
toward her legs,

breasts and thighs
& how they arc

toward you


6 Dispossession

there's a video
it's stored

in your baggage
& is damaged -

her eyes tell
the story -

it's the way
she scowls at the room

& there's the whack
of the type-writer

& Mahler
            or
Brahms
           turned up


—Mark Pirie
   © 1997


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