The best pop is like a rush of lust <\/em>– Alastair McKay<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The deuce coupe threads the dunes, back of the sands:<\/p>\n
her daddy’s car, but he will understand<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
that parties must be seized, she says, like days,<\/p>\n
thrown as hand-made pots, agreed the way<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
they’ve signed their surfboards, waxed them down<\/p>\n
like documents.\u00a0 In this grey town<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
the sounds of doo-wop only surface from the drains<\/p>\n
that overflow, the malice of late summer rains<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
determined in their pock-marked progress<\/p>\n
over sands and shallows, all that acned skin, to mess<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
up every wrung out joy that they display,<\/p>\n
gleaming in convertibles: the Wilsons, Jardine, Love, gay<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
in some forgotten sense.\u00a0 The discs stack up,<\/p>\n
the portable Dansette slaps platter on to platter, enough<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
to wind the provost up, his bike a solitary patrol<\/p>\n
against the shameless pleasure of it all.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Awful in his cycle clips, flat cap, he gets around, his face<\/p>\n
a sucked in breath of disapproval.\u00a0 Go on, chase<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
the blues away before he gets on to your back.<\/p>\n
The surf is up.\u00a0 The wind is from the north.\u00a0 But fuck,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
all summer long this is as good as it will get.\u00a0 The needle<\/p>\n
hits the groove.\u00a0 Love’s voice.\u00a0 You paddle<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
out beyond the waves, youth tied on with a cord.<\/p>\n
She watches you, God only knows, holds your reward<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
in supple limbs.\u00a0 You feel the surge.\u00a0 You sing it.\u00a0 Sea<\/p>\n
rips at your board.\u00a0 She says: sing it one more time for me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brian Johnstone<\/strong>\u2019s latest collection is The Book of Belongings <\/a><\/em>(Arc, 2009). His poetry has appeared throughout Britain, in America and Europe. His poems have been translated into over 10 different languages. In 2009 Terra Incognita<\/em> was published by L\u2019Officina (Vicenza).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
This poem has been commended for the National Poetry Competition and previously published in the Scottish magazine Chapman<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Surfin’ Safari for a Small Town Boy The best pop is like a rush of lust – Alastair McKay The deuce coupe threads the dunes, back of the sands: her daddy’s car, but he will understand that parties must be seized, she says, like days, thrown as hand-made pots, agreed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4078"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4080,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4078\/revisions\/4080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}