Poem 431

This was written in 1984 about sitting in the student cafeteria at Victoria in the first half of the year with my new compatriots, all of us amped up for drama and writing but with not enough happening to soak up the loose energy …

Our Work

Will our work ever get off the ground
we've talked ourselves to death
sitting here
waiting for something to happen
so we can get moving

without our work
we're thrown back on ourselves
we dredge up problems
when we could have sweated them out
everything simple knots up
and tangles
the table is full of bits of newspapers
and sour cups

we're jealous
watching the cashier
mimicking someone
and the cook
laughing