TOPOGRAPHY
13-09-20
[GOING NOWHERE] ’s all here
in the sun —side-door open & radio on
endless Sunday-morning reggae (1965 London
Blue Beat memories —“Little Millie’s nothing”
hustler David teaching me —swore by Prince Buster &
Derek Morgan —got me listening to the brass —but who was
David’s big man? somebody Randolph? Rudolph someone? —
‘ts’all there in first ‘novel’ ’s (lost?) hand-written pages —hah!
(the take-away coffee’s 4 Beans Cafe —250 metres
up road past the Church —same two women of the probably
every day drinking their’s & chatting sat on low church-wall
hidden from lockdown’s spies’ eyes in Walker Street’s
cul-de-sac —coffee’s endless —like James Ellis’s
endless song of endless country road whose
You Tube clip Cathy’s sent me from Laos —
Dunhill-backy chewin’ Camp-kawfee drinkin’ spice
of life in his country voice —(The Lockdown’s
like 30s 40s 50s black & white pics
of headscarfed women chin-wagging in the sun —
Aunt Lydia in Lyons par example —early ‘60s snap —
her host one-armed mosaic-artist whose daughter
came next summer to England providing Aunt Lydia
match-making opportunity —nephew (moi!)
& dark-haired dark-eyed French beauty —
chaste kiss on cheek Aunt admonished me —
the French way (dry) —“nothing dirty” —
Uncle Jim picked us up from our film date—
kept eye on us in the driver’s mirror —
“should’ve seen ‘em!” reported to Aunt Lydia —
Astrid insisted love —pressed kisses on me in the cinema —
called me my middle name ’Alan’ instead of ‘Christopher’ —
(Aunty Lod prepared Greek coffee for herself —the Camp
for Uncle Jim —before Nescafe arrived on the shelf —
long time ago —had his own teeth then
or kept the false set in (mosquitos in
the backyard now —time to go inside —
small dragonfly settles on half house-brick
(having lost the knack of literary construction
or temporarily cancelled it —the higher cadence
or tra-la-la once called it —abandoned for common
speech —thinking aloud = talking —Geraldine’s
exasperation at the style of my contribution
for her British anthology —“as tho just sat down
& wrote it?” (Denis offers ‘fortitude’ in his daily
Chinese calligraphy —i interpolate ‘in lieu
of the rhyme & rhythm of the time of plenty’
yet we all ameliorate —finding on-high’s
elegance via charitable chat (hah! perhaps that’s
what Eshleman meant by ‘gravelly’ as tho as poet
didnt indulge similar familiarity —‘gravelly’ his
editorial castigation ca 1970 of poems i sent him
hoping i’d get into Caterpillar magazine —ah! —
and that’s OK! or now it is!
fifty years down the old track
fifty years if it’s a day!
