Double Take by Kate Clanchy
Double Take
Kate ClanchyI imagined that you’d miss me, thought
you’d pace your hardwood floor in odd
worn socks, watch the clock sit stuck,get late to work, type my name caps lock
press and hold shift/break, miss buses, meals
or sit with fork half-way, lost, for minutes,
hours, sleep badly, late, dream chases, shake
send fingers out to pad the pillow, find
my hollow, start awake, roll over, hug a gap,an ache, take a walk, damp dawn, of course,
wrapped in a mac with the collar up, glimpse
a slice of face, tap a stranger’s back, draw a blank;as I have. Each time, I run to press your face
to mine, mine, shining with imagined rain.
MARGINALIA
Glenn Gould is playing Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major (‘Alla Turca’). It’s almost 3AM. I have a lot of stuff to write but find myself walking around in my room, wishing for a cigarette, thinking about a lot of things I shouldn’t.
ABOUT KATE CLANCHY
Kate Clanchy was born in Glasgow and educated in Edinburgh and Oxford. After working for several years as a teacher in London’s East End, she moved to Oxford. She has been a teacher in state schools for nearly 30 years, and is currently Writer in Residence at the comprehensive school Oxford Spires Academy, where she has nurtured creative talent among the pupils, many of whom have come to the UK as refugees. An anthology of the pupils’ poetry, England: Poems from a School was published… (more)
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ENDNOTES
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Willow
Love it ..