29/04/06 0014-0031hrs


Acid green nascar verges
lit from above in patches
the colour of lemon squash
consumed on the lip of a council estate
in the waning autumn of '68--
coalsmoked terraces typewriter gray
granite in serried planner's ranks
inside played Jim Reeves, brown milky tay
or Hank the one with the guitar leaning
on a stool, Mario Lanza "the student prince"
& Jimmy Shand or Andy Stewart
but never both, strict-time 45's
with instructions, bedrooms from which
Eddie Cochran had never been exiled--
piece & jam & the penetrative
warmth of the heater
so much more hell-like than crackling cedar
and those little devilled ham devils
dancing in the fake flames don't hurt
for the duration of a sixpence
and two sides of a single.