Looking for Billy & At the gym
by Chris Kinsey
[ poetry - october 05 ]
Looking for Billy
It came on suddenly
this blindness thing
like walking into the barn
on a Summer day -
split shafts, shadows,
shapes.
Thought he was mucking about
Hide 'n' seeking me.
Thought it was my eyes playing tricks
when I found him,
but it wasn't a feedbag
rocking from the rafters.
His father went to the War
brought back a darkness.
Billy caught too much of it.
Now the dark's in me.
Bits of me come back sometimes -
I'm going to look for Billy.
At the gym
I'm rowing like a galley slave.
Gina and Sue cycle;
going nowhere fast.
Instead we get a tour of tattoos:
”The Teletubbies are for the twins.
Eli chose the small heart.
I'm having Winnie The Pooh done for mum.
That's it then - no more room; so no more kids!”
Gina nods and pants.
Every time she pedals
a dolphin rides a billow of buttock
and plunges back.
