Go Between (50 billion)
March 22, 2008
I met one of your teachers
just the other day –
the one with the name
like gosling –
soft feathers of baby birds,
corsage worn by bride or girl –
Mr Gossage,
showed me to the room –
where we were taught,
asked me how our mother was –
said he’d kept
the paper that you wrote
for years and years
until –
it fell apart.
He’d always thought you’d
work in Academia –
so I told him –
about your education,
your Oxford Don and
Doctorate winning thesis
something to do with
literary criticism
and Walter de la Mare.
You should know:
they hold your face,
somewhere safe in slanting boards –
a young man –
with a pipe,
a jacket patched with corduroy.
Your teacher said
he’d never known such a writer –
fifteen years – and already a rival.
Tell me about it –
I said
and told him that
you’d never smoked.
I like the spare form;very controlled; just right.
Mr Gossage ( yes, baby bird’s under-feathers) taught my son..lucky Mr Gossage!:)