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Shoe Gazing
by Tim Liardet
Shoe Gazing - Tim Liardet
Shoe Gazing
McStein has a facial scar and mannerly sense,
Sol, so loud, in a perpetual lather;
Hodgkins’s sly, intelligent, furtive way
the counterpoint to Bradley’s manic brain;
the counterpoint to Bradley’s manic brain;
Aziz, his inoffensive glissando of laugh;
Randals, infallibly drawn to the weak—
One by one, I dream them, whose crimes
rattle and bump behind them like a cortége of tin cans.
rattle and bump behind them like a cortége of tin cans.
Their faces—I don’t know how to say this—
are turning into mine. That smile.
It started and now it cannot stop.
A potential is mirrored like a shadow. It falls, like rain,
are turning into mine. That smile.
It started and now it cannot stop.
A potential is mirrored like a shadow. It falls, like rain,
in the spaces between assumptions
and threads the body’s interstices, goes into your bones. Look.
and threads the body’s interstices, goes into your bones. Look.
They have found my new shoes
and squabble, trying to read the label.
Into their white-as-sea-foam trainers,
earned for good behaviour, I slip an overcautious foot.
and squabble, trying to read the label.
Into their white-as-sea-foam trainers,
earned for good behaviour, I slip an overcautious foot.
from The Blood Choir (Seren, 2006), © Tim Liardet 2006, used by permission of the author