Geoff Page: Two Poems
Different people
Different people, different signs
but everyone is “darling” now,
starting with her husband who
is honouring a distant vow.
He takes her to the jazz they love
as often as he can,
New Orleans through to Latest Thing.
She can be anxious on the road,
the night so wide and unforeseen.
Inside, she wears a playful cap;
smiles and taps her foot
and sometimes starts to sing along.
Six parts disinhibited,
she fills the short-lived gap
left between our clapping and
the leader’s next announcement
with a stripe of child-like wonder.
“Aren’t they marvellous!” she says
and starts a ripple of bemusement
and slightly wincing smiles.
Even the musicians get it;
more flattered than annoyed.
Her voice is now a part of it
and, most nights, she is right.
The Keys
Not long after it began
they found that they had swapped their keys;
happy matron, older man,
and neither one too hard to please.
No need to knock, she had her own;
more often, he was bringing his.
They rarely spent a night alone.
For years, their life retained its fizz
until one lock grew more resistant.
Even now he can remember
how he had to be persistent
more in June than in November.
Finally, he lost the knack.
The story takes a bleaker twist.
They meet for coffee; swap them back.
He keeps the memory in his wrist.
Geoff Page
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