Occasional Impressions

The Gemini Poets

Object in a Folk-Museum

Pinned on a card
A dry and smooth, not quite transparent something,
‘Caul, or’ (says the label), ‘membrane
Covering some new-born babies’ heads’
(This dry thing swaddling
A sticky newborn face, -
Presumably preserving the illusion
Of better days now gone for good,
Of cosy liquid dark). Anyway,
Keep this (they say)
And you need never fear death by drowning.

Let us reflect awhile on rural superstitions...

You, gentle reader,
Think that not many children now
Are born with this. You’re wrong,
Most of us are, only, somehow,
It’s hardly ever noticed, and
We wear it proudly (or we would be proud,
Only, being behind, we can’t see that
We’ve got it on, you see?) A wonderful invention,
Refracting needle-colours from our virgin eyes,
Shielding away the wind,
The wind and rain and storm, O,
That push up waves for drowning men.

We walk like thieves,
With nylon stockings phasing out
The contours of a face.
The contours of a person we need never see
Both here and there and him and you and me,
Seductive warming waves on nevertobecharted sea.

Thank you, I’d rather drown.
rdw - mar 1972

return to The Gemini Poets contents.