Tanya O[pass]
her front door two flights
of stairs the 50-year-old
smell of dust and cooking communal
notice board of orders and restrictions the flat
where the voluble neighbour lived
and died [nudge] the heavy inner
doors [push] the heavy
outer door [leap]
that single
step
[skip]
down the path
across the garden [pass] the bench under
the horse chestnut the driveway of the block
which used to house US Embassy
personnel and their playful
children [hit] the pavement
[turn] the corner
[dance]
past where that disliked schoolfriend
used to live the traffic lights [catch]
the bus to the train station
[make for] platform
1
or 2
or 5
or sometimes 9
[sit]
on the train
[holding your breath until]
it leaves.
“This poem is highly autobiographical and I don’t think its subject would be very pleased at the glee it contains regarding the leaving of her flat, hence the anonymity. It was written on Suzannah Evans’ Rewriting the Map course, during the first assignment, when we were asked to map a very familiar place or route and make a poem from that. I had great fun with this, letting it sprawl all over the page, and playing with the square brackets, so the form and the content chimed. I have a slight obsession with maps – this course was perfect for feeding this, and for inspiring me, from Week 1, to try something different with my poetry.”
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