1. On the Nottingham Train to London
As you read Samuel Johnson’s
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
Chapter four
‘The Prince continues to Grieve and Muse’;
and the bucolic English landscape
flashes brilliant
through the train window;
I wonder young man,
with your pale skin
and your strawberry blonde hair;
“What are the musings of your mind,
And what grieves your heart?”
2. On the London Tube
We sit side by side on the Tube.
You are a fine looking man of my age.
We catch each other’s eye as we look in the reflection
of the window opposite:
and we smile that smile people of our age smile.
And you continue reading
E.H. Gombrush A Little History of the World.
And I continue reading
Edward Lucie-Smith Sexuality in Western Art.
And we smile.
3. On the London to Nottingham Train
You are classically dark and handsome and young
on the London to Nottingham train.
With i phones in your ears you read a university library book,
Foucault's Power and Knowledge;
And it makes me wonder,
“Will you learn such knowledge as to use your powers well?”
11th and 12th March 2011
