Green by Nick Earls

Author:Nick Earls
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: general fiction
ISBN: 9781743433607
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2012-08-30T04:00:00+00:00

‘Had we but world enough, and time,

This coyness, Lady, were no crime.

We would sit down, and think which way

To walk, and pass our long love’s day.

‘That’s how it starts, anyway. And then there’s some line about the Ganges, or something. The poem’s more about time, really. It’s just got this funny start that’s designed to make you think . . . something else.’

‘Well, you’ll have to remember the Ganges bit for next time, otherwise people could think it was all about some mistress.’

‘I was never so good with the Ganges bit. I mean, why the Ganges? Had he ever been there?’

I go into the toilet to take the costume off. Why, when I read through the poem last night, did the Ganges bit not sink in? I happened to find my old eisteddfod folder, I happened to take a look. It made sense. I was starting to run out of material, and it gets dull out at the road. But, without the Ganges bit, the poem really does sound as though it might mean something else.

‘You know,’ Sophie says, when I pass her the costume, ‘if we both weren’t the right height to fit into this thing, we might have found each other in the crowd on Friday. There were way too many tall people with a lot to say about that honorary doctorate.’ She goes in and shuts the toilet door. ‘It’s all a bit depressing, really. I don’t know if it got us anywhere. All that shouting, and I copped an elbow in the face. And for what? Do you ever have those times when nothing is really going right? You probably don’t. Anyway, back to it I guess.’

She bounds out of the toilet, in case she can fake her way to real enthusiasm. I zip her up and she strides for the door, like a superhero. Requiring theme music, I decide—since I can’t think of one useful word to say—and I begin to do percussion and horn noises.

She starts to punch the air in slow motion with her wing tips and then stops and says, ‘Is everyone singing that at the moment?’

‘What?’

‘“Eye of the Tiger”.’

‘Oh. I didn’t realise it was “Eye of the Tiger”.’

‘You. Frank, my mother, me. I’m singing it now, it’s so contagious. At least Frank says he’s got the album.’

‘Yeah. I’ve got no excuse. I don’t even like it.’

‘It’s everywhere. Everywhere.’

‘Well, I tried “YMCA” out at the road the other night, but the wings don’t bend enough to do M. Don’t go thinking “Eye of the Tiger” was even close to top of my list.’

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