FIGURE OF OPPORTUNITY With arms as open as a wingspan he suggests a welcome, the overstated bonhomie of the out-of-season Alpine innkeeper, the hypocritical relief of the prodigal father. He spreads his fingers too, an octave or a greedy grab, and bares his phosphorescent teeth against indifference. When you get close enough to be addressed, his mouth addresses you, but what he says is hardly worth repeating: the blandest of courtesies, a cradle of cliché and one inconsequential joke. Yet the truth is in there somewhere, like garlic in a stew, unfindable but on your breath and on your nerves all day. He wants you to acknowledge him as if he were a needy child with some pathetic, ostentatious game he’s just invented. A smile would be enough, a conversation more than he could hope for. But the wheeling shadow of the dying elm and the hoarse, catarrhal hauling of the shingle by the tide express a sense of urgency. Seize anything if not the day: the candlesticks, the bunch of keys, the poetry anthology... Seize anything. But go, get going, go! [from Gregory Woods, An Ordinary Dog (Manchester: Carcanet, 2011)]
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 15:31:44 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015