Term Time in the Mid-Eighties
angular necessity
elbowed us into night or day
between blade-sharp images and
rising spirits of a used grey;
some faith shuffled us towards
cleaner living lines of boxed-cars,
all weary joints and bolts, faux
leather seating, featureless bars.
brown plated steel and
reluctant hydrogas cheapened
on driveways and forecourts while
we kicked at rust, the substance beaten
by deadening lights. afterwards
glowing cigarettes sparked
over town, house by house,
falling onto streets.
they left dreamlike clouds in mournful dance;
but nothing else of the smooth tasting tar.
Note: Hydrogas was the name of a kind of suspension system used by British Leyland cars. It was not always reliable and one way of discerning a second hand Leyland that was not roadworthy was that it leaned, often considerably, to one side.
Page(s) 29
magazine list
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