One into town

Every morning it was
and is
the same

journey
after
journey
after
journey
after

stop

and look around

Faces
that age and
are replaced
by new
young or
old
look back
again
and
once more

a daily grind
or grand journey
moved
by tidal flow

Car related regrets and amusements

At the weekend I realised that in the past, when I had owned a whilte car, I had missed out on the opportunity to write “Polite” in mirror writing on the front, put a couple of extra aerials on it, and then drive up behind people on the motorway and make them paranoid.

I’ve just been passed one of the labs upstairs. On the benches are skulls in plastic bags. Maybe I could borrow a complete skeleton and sit it in the right hand seat of my car, as I drive on the left?

Open ticket

We went to the station platform in the late
evening. No-one was about, the trains had
long since stopped running, and
we could be undisturbed until the morning.

The night drew dark around us, softened by
the warmth of platform lighting. Earlier in the
day we’d been by the lake-side, watched
swans, had our fill of cheap food and beer
and watched the quiet town from the comfort
of patio seats.

Now it was time for rest proper.

The chill of the air was gentle in its arrival,
a quiet the breeze from the lake under the
cloudless sky. Tomorrow would be a good
day. There would be another train journey –
after a false start the movement back to
bigger towns, that would see the trip’s end
in Prague.

No matter the cold, the singing of the birds
or the unwatched bags at our feet. The
night’s rest was steady, with broken sleep
and the dreams of where next we would
arrive.

A day at the office

> You are in a room. You cannot see anything.

Walk forward

> You walk forward and hit a wall. There is a switch and a door.

Turn on light

> You turn on the light, and can see a desk and chair
> to the East, a window to the North, and a door to the South.

Walk to desk

> You walk to the desk, on which there is a computer screen
> and keyboard. There is also a cup of coffee, a packet
> of cigarettes, and a box of matches.

Drink coffee

> You take a sip from the coffee. It is hot, and bitter.
> Pieces of the coarse beans from the brew get stuck
> between your teeth.

Open door

> The door is locked.

Unlock door

> The door is locked from the outside. You cannot unlock the door.

Open window

> The window does not open.

Look out of window

> Out of the window you can see people walking on the
> street below. They look very small. You are high up.

Sit on Chair

> You sit on the chair at the desk

Light cigarette

Contemplate meaning of life

Pretend to be a great French philosopher

Thorny moment

She walks in
there is a “hello”
and they talk
briefly
a gossip veneer for
co-conspirators
all the while
with him, looking on
with sideways views
until a second greeting
this one closed to
new debate
after the formality of introduction

An observation on wildlife

She who smiles
and he who frowns
look together
at the squirrel
caught against the
side of the garden shed

its
little feet
hanging limp
and trapped
neck snapped
and tail
brushed by the wall

they
stare blankly
unfocussed
unclear
how it got there
or what to do next

this doesn’t appear in
the home manual
and besides
thinking is
for the others
and
something for the uninitiated