The Zero Suite (3)

April Fool’s Day

Dure plus que fer à mâcher
– François Villon


Dure plus que fer à mâcher
harder than iron to chew
the nine o’clock start
on the road by five to eight
– You’re sillier than I am
– No, you’re sillier
Farewell to the great kitten of time

– She knows she’ll get disturbed
every quarter of an hour
while I’m around
– Even though she sleeps
for four hours at a time
when we’re not here?
– She’s pining

Security barrier down
reverse to try the other one
A truck in front of it
Drake Security Services
& then the pen / this pen
I keep by the dashboard
in case I have a thought

whilst driving
slips out of my hand
A sign? It’s dangerous enough
to scribble stuff
when the traffic lights are red
but groping for a ballpoint
under the seat

must rate way over that
The certainty of aggravation
To be up & moving, good
The simultaneous lure
of ten more minutes in bed
combined with the cud
of problems to be chewed

& brooded over
Free-floating anxiety
seizing on what’s to hand
Dure plus que fer à mâcher
The day
awaits its – what?
Its spark?

The day awaits its dark


(1/4-18/6/09)

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This poem first appeared in the collection below:

Jack Ross. A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems and Sequences 1981-2014 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2014): 137-38.

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