Poem 343

The complexities of playing mad when there’s madness in the family … this is actually the same mother as in Poem 38 (iv) …

( I like the simile of sparrows in a railway station and crazed pelican … )

Jack’s Mother

Jack has to go out and play Lear every night
knowing his mother is irredeemably
mad
         and not picturesquely so

in his iron boots he strides about
hollering
                   making the plexiglass roof
rant back at him
                                  he has a fool at his collar
a beggar dragging on his ankle
                                                                  blind men
and sight gags flying about like sparrows
in a railway station

all the kids love it
when he starts tearing his clothes off
turning round and round like a dog without a tail
running 
                 ahead of the straitjackets
and the nets
                           a crazed pelican

I can see
he keeps the gap behind his eyes
just wide enough
                                   so the spark
can't grope over

he's locked his mother up
and she's not
                           getting out