black and white and read all over

— 

I AM NOT A POET Assembling published by VerySmallKitchen, including Memory Exchange score and poem. 

http://verysmallkitchen.com/2012/01/20/i-am-not-a-poet-assembling/

The full ASSEMBLING is online here, with contributions from:

Magdalen Chua, Emma Cocker, Peter Cant & Alex Eisenberg,  Jennie Guy, Colin Herd, Mirja Koponen, Shandra Lamaute, Michelle Letowska,Jow Lindsay, nick-e melville, Iain Morrison,  Marit Muenzberg, Tamarin Norwood, Mary Paterson, seekers of lice, Gerry Smith, Kim Walker, andSamantha Walton.

The lemon that I stole in Leningrad

 

When heather kept me warm in a night where I could not find my tent

They formed a human chain

The old man had tears in his eyes

At the late age of 57

Trolleys and trams

We all used to sleep outside under the grapevines

We buried him in the garden of a special friend

He said nothing!

Seeing lightning bolts falling down to the sea

Terrified until the bottom

I am ashamed

Eventually one magical summer’s evening

Rowing out to a tiny island

Rings on the fingers, Bells on the toes

The smell of the oranges of my childhood garden

I believed it was a robin

All broken timber and flaking white paint

I now know that it was a wren

Why was I scared?

It smelled of the summer

The magic of making a new friend

Walking to a lesson across cobbles

An unexpected and happy time

I pass as straight

He stops at the turnstiles to glare

Was there some secret tunnel?

I said, ‘I was running away.’

I don’t know why

I still feel a little haunted

Tastes Wrigley’s Spearmint, smells Radox green

Until he fell on the dog

Before you left me

A glimpse of new love

She’d take me there one day

I learnt my lesson

Falling off a brick wall

Standing under a tree sheltering from heavy rain

Catching frogs amongst shopping trolleys

It was the final time

I am sliding into something

About nothing in particular

I didn’t go to jail

Nobody laughed

No one has said anything

Burnt cigarettes

I could not believe in the truth anymore

And I regret doing that

I can’t remember last night

 

Note: this memory may be second hand, passed to me through stories from my parents

 

 

 

 

Excerpts from memories donated to The Memory Exchange, Wednesday 10^tth August 2011 at Totalkunst Gallery, Forest Cafe, Edinburgh.  Memory Archivist: Mary Paterson.