Saxby Pridmore: Four Poems
Hog
You cock your wrist and blast the CBD with noise.
Startled knees snap back and walkers make mini-Maasai
jumps into the air, land, utter and go on.
Your Harley has an extra fat black back tyre
while Kawasaki riders have parked their bees
in honey-comb rows for buzzing off at six past five.
The motorbike replaced the quiet Western Front
dispatches horse. For life they kept the din down. Now
when the Postie comes and goes you need to listen out.
You cock your wrist and blast the CBD with noise.
But your sign language isn’t going to work. Don’t
be shy, if you want to say how lost you are: use words.
It Got Lost
What happened to the gold watch?
What happened to working in one place all your life?
Sometimes such things get lost.
What happened to all those blokes you worked with?
What happened to working in one place all your life?
Sometimes you only see things looking back.
What happened to those blokes you worked with?
And playing football for the team where you grew up?
Sometimes you only see things looking back
Like trachoma was a worry once.
If they can pay you can play where you grew up
But loyalty pays nobody’s bills.
Trachoma was a worry once
And sometimes such things get lost.
But loyalty pays nobody’s bills.
What happened to the gold watch? I sold it.
Saxby Pridmore
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6 mins
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2 mins