MATTHEW FAIRHURST
Classics The unconscious bias while I make the coffee: I am not a fore-milk-adder, but a 'pre-lactarian'. The standard, ‘how are things?’ ‘Ah, fine. And you?’ ‘Fine, thanks.’ A moment’s pause, then down to work: Ancient meters uncoil from browned pages, Bizarre untraveled realms raised from the dead Which must be navigated with a ken Of cadences and nuance. There are shades Of Greek script, Sanskrit etymology. These are the achievements I cannot match. Pliny, in his letters, would revere The older generation: and here I am, Two thousand years later, and little’s changed: There’s a tradition my age bars me from Which I admire, but cannot attain - Or am I, too, just rifling through 'personis', My true face lost, or yet to be defined? |
The Two O’Clock Blues Nothing to be done But sit and stare Into ever-deepening Cups of coffee. It’s a peeling old house. The mundane things Chain me to the past: Old presents, Fading photos. The life my mother Could have led. Rain. Nothing. Stuck here all afternoon While somewhere, Twenty miles south, Are people with whom I Never took my chance. Nothing to be done But sit and listen To lives slipping away: This is the hour Of creeping doubts - Not about whether The past, up to now, Has been futile But rather, whether Anything I try this hour Will amount to much. |
Matthew Fairhurst is a student from Tyneside. He writes poetry, plays jazz,
and asks people questions. |
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