INNER EYE 1962

A BOY AND GIRL MEET ONE SUNDAY IN 1962

It was Sunday.

We stopped off
at the pond
after singing
in the church choir.

Yehudit was sitting there
on the grass
making a chain
from daisies
her fingers busy
at their work.

I'm not going
to church once
I leave school
and begin work,
I said.

Why not?
She said.

Because I have to work
most Sundays at the job
I am after,
I said.

Can't you go
on the Sundays you
are not working?

What's the point?
I said,
I find believing in God
slipping away from me.

You don't
believe in God?
She said,
looking at me
with her lovely eyes.

Well not so much
not believe in God,
but more I find it hard
to grasp it all,
I said.

But God
believes in you,
she said.

I saw the small gap
where her two tits
were at the top
of her low cut dress
and I looked at them.

Maybe God does,
but it is easier for Him
he knows about me,
I know little about Him,
I said.

I'll go to church
even when I start work,
she said,
it is my duty,
plus the fact my mother
won't let me not go;
please go just
to please me.

I'll see what Sundays
I get off,
I said,
looking into the woods
where we had sex once,
wishing we could again,
but knowing
there wasn't time
as her old lady
would be wondering
why she was late
home from church.

She dropped the daises
and leaned over
and kissed me
on the lips.

Best be getting back
or my mum will wonder
where I've got to,
she said.

Yes I guess so,
I said.

So we got up
and walked back
onto the road,
and I walked her
to the small road
that led to her cottage,
and waved her goodbye,
keeping the swaying
of her fine hips
in my inner eye.