Riding with Ferlinghetti (1968)
Greetings fellow traveller, he says,
slinging a dufflebag overhead
and sliding into the seat beside me.
I’m heading back to uni on the bus
with a packet of panatellas
and Penguin Modern Poets No 5.
He acknowledges the book with a smile:
Our faces on the window drip with neons,
streetlights by Giacoma Balla
as we pull in to puddled stops.
The door opens and shuts,
drags in bedraggled frames
trailing posthumous city vibes
but what can eclipse two hours on a rainy night
with this poet Most Unlike?
He talks about Neruda, Ginsberg and Howl’s famous trial,
and something freely dances within him,
like the changing light of San Francisco
and I’m listening
like I’m sucking on salvation,
because he’s the man with the beat
and the next stop is mine.
.
Walking the Dog
My Saturday morning routine for pocket money —
couple of knocks on Mrs Jensen’s door,
sound of a steel key turning
and a frail lady with bandaged legs
hands me the leash to a cocker spaniel.
Not this Saturday.
This must be the adult version
of Punch and Judy —
a door wrenched open
like the curtain on a play
of three tragic characters
and an ironing board
jammed swiftly in the doorway.
— Come away from the door, George,
it’s only the girl come for Monty …
But her new son-in-law, in the midst of a brawl
with bride and ironingboard,
turns his gob like a fairground clown
to a splash of purple liquid I recognise
as methylated spirits.
The murmurings of bees
in apple blossom around me stop.
I stand frozen in the moment
as if listening to a lost sea.
How could a day fall apart so fast?
I catch Monty’s leash as he makes a break for it
and we head for the park.
I feel Mrs Jensen’s shame, wondering if I’ll tell my mother,
and the embarrassment of her daughter —
how could she get it so wrong,
this marriage made in heaven and forever?
I let Monty drink at the fountain
and walk the dog an hour longer.
© Jan FitzGerald
Jan FitzGerald (born 1950) is a long-established New Zealand poet with a growing international reputation. She lives and works as a full-time artist in Napier, NZ, but says, “Poet is who I am. Art is what I do.”
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