As it’s nearly Christmas, here’s a special treat. A slight re-write of one of my favourite poems, and it seems, yours—it was selected for and published in the first edition of Nain Rouge and again in Girl’s Got Rhythm.

Morning Town Ride

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

Like a
toothpaste
tube of the
hunched up,
bunched up,
crunched up,
swilled and
SPIT at
station
drain.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

Oh oh,
get some
mouthwash.
Don’t breathe
on me
please;
last night’s
garlic
was good,
last night.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

Finger phones,
mobiles,
mails,
thumb apps,
flickr,
angry birds,
twitter.
Overheat,
a mass,
morass

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

of smells.
Standing
room only.
Balance,
read ‘Free
Metro’, or
‘Kindle’.
Hang from
bars like
sensible
apes (phew!)

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

Save
yourself!
bump,
lurch,
sway,
sway.
Hear
wheels,
tracks,
screech.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

iPod,
earbuds,
bleeding tracks,
jiggle.
Fan face,
cool down,
heat up,
moist hot
heaps of
humanity …
ride …

On …
morning
town ride.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

Polly Stretton © 2012