RIVERSIDE TALK 1964

A BOY AND GIRL ROW BY A RIVERSIDE IN 1964

Milka and I cycle
from the farmhouse
to the riverside
and park our bikes

against the hedge
and walk beside the river
and sit on the grass
and look

at the passing water
that was a close thing
she says
if Mum had found

your handkerchief in my bed
I don't know what
she would have said
and I only just

found it in time
and she let me
make my own bed
I lay on my back

and stared at the cloud formations
I guess you could
have said you borrowed
my handkerchief

I say casually
Milka stares at me
o sure I just borrowed
Benny's handkerchief

although I have thousands
of my own
she says
she would have put

one and one together
and have come up
with us in bed together
and you would have been banned

(if not killed by my dad)
from the house
and I would have been
God knows what

they would have
done with me
I daren't think of it
she says

but she didn't find it
I say
you did so problem solved
she continues

to stare at me
eyes firmer
seemingly darker
that could have been

the end of us
she says
I'd never have been
allowed to see you again

that's if I had survived
in one piece and not
beaten to a pulp
she looks away

breathing heavy
hands by her side
staring at the river
where was the handkerchief?

I say
under my pillow
under my bloody pillow
she says

staring at me again
how did it get there?
I ask
how the hell do I know

when you were shafting me
I suppose
she says angrily
a large rook flies past

a cloud formation
looking like a dog's head
appears above us
that looks like

my dog's head
I say
pointing to the sky
what?

she says
the cloud formation
looks like my dog
she looks up

at the clouds
does it?
yes especially
around the ears

I say
she reclines on the grass
beside me
breathing heavy

her small tits
rising and falling
as she breathes
sorry about the handkerchief

I should have been
more careful
I say
it could have caused you

real trouble and me
a black name
and maybe a punching
she turns her head

and stares at me
I love her eyes
I could drink them dry
I think as I gaze at her

I suppose I could have said
you gave it to me
as a keepsake
Milka says

Mum likes you
she'd believe only
the best of you
and if she'd been younger

she'd probably fancy you herself
how disgusting that sounds
she adds smiling
I kiss her cheek

cows moo near by
in a field
more rooks fly overhead
I'm glad we're here

she says
sexually
but'd be happier
in my warm bed.