Glimpses
The buffet, Paddington Station, 1992
I find, behind a grubby mustard pot,
a large and opened envelope, sent out
and franked in purple, Hornsea School of Art,
tenth of September 1972,
to Hannah Leighton-Jones, B.A.
Inside, two photos, which were placed there .. when?
One, black and white, a paddock.
Two grey, well-suited people, closely-woven,
a he and she. A Father and Mother look to them.
The lad? Their son? Spit of the father, certainly.
Aquiline. And she, shy girl (a girl friend? Hannah?)
Her hand is being held, but she, surely
and perceptibly, is leaning away from him.
The second shot, a boozer, God knows where.
Full colour, catching background reds and blues,
a boxing poster, Cooper – Bugner fight.
A crowd of kids, their gear a blaze of punk,
and Hannah (same girl anyway) is there,
wrapped to the arm and chest of that bright boy,
his hair spiked high and she hilarious.
**
I thought maybe I’d post the photos back,
but left it in the end.
She could be anywhere by now.
Robert Nisbet was for several years an associate lecturer in creative writing at Trinity College, Carmarthen, where he also worked for a while as an adjunct professor for the Central College of Iowa. His short stories appear in Downtrain (Parthian, 2004) and his poems in Merlin’s Lane (Prolebooks, 2011).