Jumble
9 February 1990, Friday, Glasgow
Am 11.15 Jumble Sale1.
Young-Toby, who had always loved a jumble sale, was hunkering down to live cheaply for the foreseeable. Hence his trips to the Barras Market, and to the church hall up the road.
[Undated poem]
It’s possible to live like this,
a single person in a single room.
Improving things a little every day.
I put the bedclothes on the floor
and make the bed again.
I can destroy even a well-made bed
with two nights’ sleeping.
I must be a violent dreamer
a dreamer of whirlwinds
and volcanos from the craters
and swirls left in the sheets.
Not by lovemaking, that would be
understandable, but just by me, fighting
with my dreams.
Villanelle Glasgow
The sky is darker than the ground.
I hear a lock unfasten.
Am I pursued by man or hound?
What started as a distant sound
gets closer as I listen.
The sky is darker than the ground.
I strain to hear but all around
the stars like brilliants glisten.
Am I pursued by man or hound?
The wood’s a clever place, I’ve found,
a palace or a prison.
The sky is darker than the ground.
Up in a tree where I’ll confound
all questions except this one:
Am I pursued by man or hound?
The omens bad, the witches drowned.
What circumstances have arisen?
The sky is darker than the ground.
Am I pursued by man or hound?
On Not Seeing the Lunar Eclipse of February 9th 1990
Well, I suppose, being a poet I should try to
imagine it. But we all know that what
you see in your head isn’t the same as what
you see outside. To see it in the sky. And
that would be it. Much better.
I have no memory of the Cabaret. However, I’m pretty sure it isn’t a production of the musical Cabaret — which Toby loved and loves in all its forms.