DEEP SAD SIGHS 1972.

A COUPLE ON HOLIDAY TALK OF WORK AND ART IN 1972

When we get back
from holiday
Benny
we have got to get

some more modern art
you know
stuff from up
and coming artists

and not clog up the shop
with old master prints  
Abela says
I mean we've had that

Goya print for ages now
I sip my beer
and light up a cigarette
and gaze at her

sitting in the street cafe
with that
I've just
woken up face on her

in that green dress
that comes up to
her backside
and those green stocking

that do nothing for me
other than me thinking
she's playing a role
in Robin Hood

and his Merry Men production
and you need
to be more assertive
she says

grab the customers
when they come in
and don't let them
out of the shop

without buying a work
of art or print
even if it is only
a postcard print of Sussex

I think of last night
and how she
undressed for bed
and being a bit tipsy

she fell over three times
and lay on the floor
at one time
like a wounded gazelle

are you listening
to me Benny?
yes
I say

I was just thinking
we buy in some of those
watercolours by the young girl
who is always pestering us

but to whom you said
her watercolours look like
bad art left out in the rain
Abela stares at me

it won't sell
it will hang around
the shop like a bad smell
it's art though

it may sell
she shakes her head
and sips her white wine
and lights a cigarette

and yaks on about
more abstract oil art
and I recall how once
she had got into bed

and her head touched
the pillow
she was off asleep
and all her rather

inebriated promises
can to nothing
and I lay there
watching her

with her mouth open
and hands tucked
between her thighs
with deep sad sighs.