Saturday, November 07, 2015

November 1955 & Empty Diary 1955

Earl's Court: she's off to those 'masking tape lawns'



Brighton Station: she's back from the alarming encounter with 'rubber horns'



Empty Diary 1955

Office blocks imagine lift shafts for themselves
but offer slatted stairs. Neat masking tape
paths square the lawns. The plate glass
fades the girls from their adding machines

under a slice of you and your
approaching world: a crystal defect swimming its
buckled skin. His syllabics rattle your timely
heels: gooseflesh rises along your attempt at

ease
          (listen, that’s desilu laughter canned in
history’s back row)
                                You trip up slippery
steps to appointment you shake his confident
fist: smile at his unscheduled rubber horns.

Robert Sheppard