Pledge
What to do? You sign it,
as they all do, sign it in your childish hand,
descenders and ascenders imperfectly described,
a name, its capitals, its lower case
presented in the ink that’s drying even
as you gaze at it, drying as you think yourself
committed, pledge what future
you are able to conceive of to an absence,
disavowal (though you do not know these words)
and cannot see beyond the demon
conjured up before your eyes, you wish
in all your being to avoid. You will. You swear to it
right here. But cannot know
what liquor in a glass is waiting on a table,
what bottle, sweating in the heat of some back room,
has the word upon its label
that will draw you in, make a mockery
of this, its scrolls and curlicues, the fake solemnity
induced by those who should
know better, playing on a child’s mind,
its addiction only to a vow, a campaign, to a faith.
Brian Johnstone’s latest collection is Dry Stone Work (Arc, 2014). His work has appeared throughout Scotland and in the UK, America and Europe. He is a co-founder of StAnza: Scotland’s International Poetry Festival and was Festival Director from 2001-2010. His poems appear on The Poetry Archive. www.brianjohnstonepoet.co.uk
Note: this poem first published in Antiphon