King of the Road

23.11.11

See my car

‘phone box, Monopoly hotel, Edam was:

That’s how red. And that scratch,

Is a fighter’s scar, victory’s proof.

Rust?  Well, my car’s no baby,

No beginner, it’s been

Around the block.

See, when I’m in my car

The world shifts and settles

To put me at its centre

Pedalling like fury

By Chance

If, when I was seven,

I had slipped my hand from my mother’s

and let the crowd draw me away

to a life in the circus,

and if, when you were eighteen

you had skidded on your Harley,

torn your shin, been nursed

by a daring bareback rider,

we would never have come together

like this, arms outstretched

knees hooked over the bar

masters of the flying trapeze.

April 2012

Louise Ordish