Hurrying Woman circa 1912
after a sketch held in the archive at Marjons College, Plymouth
This is my idea of cleaning:
to polish the mahogany
as I slide full speed
down the helter skelter bannisters.
He’s at it again, the artist,
moony-eyed, trying to catch me.
But I’m off! Out in a boat
with a loud hailer, to Westminster,
to barrack the politicians
who’ve snaffled my rights.
The artist holds his brush out
to measure me, poor love.
He’s determined to fix me.
Well, he may as well try holding
a streak of flame, a running river.
Good luck to him, I say.
He’d better take a long look,
sharpen his pencil.
Chrissy Banks has recently moved to Exeter and stopped working as a therapist in order to spend more time writing. She is now finding many house renovation displacement activities. Chrissy has poems in many anthologies and magazines, including the Rialto, the North, South and the Broadsheet as well as a pamphlet, Watching the Home Movies and a collection, Days of Fire and Flood, now out of print. www.chrissybankspoetry.com