A man goes into the newsagents by the tube station at Notting Hill Gate
and he picks up a newspaper
he has two minutes before his tube arrives
the girl behind the counter scans the paper
it’s platform two, heading westbound
the man puts his hand in his pocket to look for some money
money to pay for his newspaper
he is in a hurry
suddenly
he holds his hand to his chest
and he falls
As he is falling
he lets go of the coins in his hand
they fall to floor
and then the paper falls
the pages separate and flutter to the ground
as the man is falling
the tube has pulled in
there are no seats
the coins are rolling on the floor
and all the while the girl stands still
with the coins that are rolling
the pages that have separated
and the man who is dying
and she knows that she must do something
there are other people waiting
they want the next tube
platform one, eastbound
but she doesn’t know what to do with herself
she doesn’t know
where to start
There are so many things to do
with this man who is dying
these pages that are ruined
the impatient commuters
and those coins
those coins that are rolling on the floor
those coins that won’t stop rolling
because in a city
it never stops.
This is strong. I like the focus on the coins and the your choice of stanza construction. The lack of punctuation is also effective as it lends an air of immediacy. Are you pleased with this poem?
ReplyDeleteI was pleased with how this one turned out. As I'm sure has become apparent from our lectures is that I like simplicity in a poem and so that's what I was going for. I actually imitated the style of writing of one of my favourite poets Prevert, who rarely uses punctuations and is a fan of repetition in his writing
ReplyDelete