PICKINGS

Samples of poetry from NHI publications

LIMBO TIME
two-thirty in the morning i am wakened by my wife with "do you want a cup of tea?" a rhetorical question it is already made. we sit in bed supping the welcome brew "the clocks go back, we can have an extra hour in bed" mentally i count them, bedside, microwave, video, computer, grandfather — a baker’s dozen or more it will take me at least an hour to adjust them all it is two fifty in the morning or is it only ten to two? we are living in limbo time have we lived an hour twice or did time stand really still? i turn the pillows over and try again to sleep.
GERALD ENGLAND

LIMBO TIME

two-thirty in the morning
i am wakened by my wife
with "do you want a cup of tea?"
a rhetorical question
it is already made.
we sit in bed supping the welcome brew
"the clocks go back,
we can have an extra hour in bed"
mentally i count them,
bedside, microwave, video,
computer, grandfather —
a baker’s dozen or more
it will take me at least an hour
to adjust them all
it is two fifty in the morning
or is it only ten to two?
we are living in limbo time
have we lived an hour twice
or did time stand really still?
i turn the pillows over
and try again to sleep.

GERALD ENGLAND

from
Limbo Time
ISBN 0 903610 21 3

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This page last updated: 23rd April 2003.