Sincerity by Carol Ann Duffy

Author:Carol Ann Duffy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

The Map

She seethed when he perused the map

on the chocolate box, his finger sliding between

marzipan and coffee cream and praline cup.

It wasn’t masculine.

We weans could choose –

treats were for women and children first –

he should pick without fuss

or, better, refuse.

But I liked watching him

in this radical pose; his high cheekbones

and lowered eyes, a little camp;

bemused by his small moment of luxury . . .

then her shrill voice, offside:

Be a man, Frank!

Junction 13

There was nothing to do,

so we hitched to the airport;

ten years early for the flight.

Wore love-bites.

Nothing going on, so a youth noosed

six school ties round a horse,

but it fled up the new M6.

Timed each kiss.

What else, but roll the snow

up and down the estate

to a grubby moon.

A name on a metal comb.

Or move in bored pairs

through the Harvest Festival tent,

switching the prizes.

It was all prose.

Nada; sat on hot leather seats

in the back of a Ford Cortina.

Are we nearly there yet?

Not yet. Not yet.

Nothing. Pocket dictionaries

with snide words highlighted in pink:

Prick. Ejaculate. Ball.

Played tennis with a wall.

There was nothing to do,

but limp for no reason;

speak in foreign accents to strangers.

Sunglasses made you famous.

Nothing happening. All summer

in the Spinney, building a bonfire

we were never permitted to light.

Everyone white.

What else, but smoke tea in a graveyard;

steal the flowers for our mothers.

Get skelped for it.

Bedtime in daylight.

Or hide in the wardrobe –

no one was looking for you –

or tell lies without purpose.

Walk home, trying out blindness.

Zilch; the world was not here.

It flowed away under the motorway bridge,

the world; it roared past the platform.

This is just where you start from.

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