She stared at
the lights in the distance
remembering her dreams
of attending a university
by the seaside
but she moved
to places she did not know then
refused to be a wife
swore herself childless
and tried to help her mother
drive a car
then found that all her mother could do
was signal suddenly
and pull off the road
declaring her hatred of
highways and the local
roundabout even
Afterwards she sat on the
sofa and listened to her
mother discuss the price of cat
food, the need to buy more
vinegar to wash the floors
with, while the beach across the
road was never visited and became
a complaint of salt laden
air and perilous
drifting sand
Dear Claine, So good and measured. What a sure hand/eye you have. (Me, I was writing a wee piece this afternoon about some university profs talking rubbish in the staff room where no one would hear...and I wound up shouting!)
ReplyDeleteAh those salty days of lost aspiration - how well you convey it - and there's that damn roundabout!
ReplyDeleteThe dangers of realising your dreams... great poem Claine
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone. My mother filled with fear in her house beside the sea provides so much inspiration for me as there is so little I can do to cause her to live more fully! So instead I write about the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteThat sofa chat - feel I've been a fly on the wall there too - strangely familiar. Great poem Claine - really enjoyed it :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Kristen
ReplyDeletea university lost at sea
ReplyDeletewhere all there's to eat's salted cat
Yes that is right Kit. All is served with a side salad dressed in the fear of drifting sands!
ReplyDelete