Bone Chemistry
Mr Dishman broke his wrist
playing squash or chess or somesuch,
but didn’t let it stop him with equations:
acid-base, displacements, the Haber process.
He learnt to write on the blackboard with his left,
a strange non-cursive script with crisp ascenders,
the round-backed Є of the Bauhaus,
while (Ca3(PO4)2) continued to precipitate.
When the bone mended; radius or ulna
– why didn’t we ask? – he would sometimes write
with alternating hands; scripts with the right hand,
sinister subscripts with the other.
Simon Williams has eight published collections, his latest being a co-authored pamphlet with Susan Taylor, The Weather House www.indigodreams.co.uk/williams-taylor/4594076848, published in 2017 by Indigo Dreams which is also touring as a performance show. Simon was elected The Bard of Exeter in 2013 and founded the large-format magazine, The Broadsheet.