The Big Alone
Knotbrook Taylor
the garden
this was a knowledgeable garden
witness the rare plants
listing and begging
beside the cracked path
and the now suckered roses
must have taken some weeding
could do with some rain
if he had a pound for everytime they said it
barometer
most modern barometers are graduated in milibars
they work on the effect of atmospheric pressure
on mercury in a tube
gravity causes a torricellian vacuum
changes in pressure cause the metal to rise or fall
a barometer is used to predict weather
the house
big windows
all the better to see the view
across the valley
holding up well
in the face of the rain
the strain of the sun
but an old house is not entitled
to social care
the man in the house
in the room there are only
three material things
a chair
a window
a man
he traces spirals
on the side of the stiffback
with his non-arthritic finger
staring at the outside and slowly working
into the centre
anticyclonic
all week he sits
facing the window
looking out across the basin
inside these days
he has become an expert on weather
it'll be raining by tonight he says
to the young woman sent to change him
you see he leaks
nonsense she says
he's clocked the clouds
but cannot name them
he does not know
to call it a polar front
but is certain of a downpour
in the late afternoon she returns
to cook a meal and give him a wash
her coat is wet
glasshouse
there is a skeleton in the back
once an elegant greenhouse
wood constructed
pointed pinnacles
broken panes
cover the floor
delicate to brittle
like old bones
a vine died here
roosting on a cane
hanging from the roof
is a beautiful squab
this years clutch
chest puffed out
waiting awhile
before taking the air
spectre
declining
as though death
were a gradual thing
moving by stealth
from one state to another
the falling pressure
of the millibars on a barometer
fair
changeable
dull
rainy
the view is calling
slowly drawing him in
a living ghost
coming to the elements
going out of himself
by slow precipitation
meanwhile
salmon in hollandaise sauce
the tap water is better than bottled here
the faces
races mix
with the flow of the beer
survival
arrival
down from the hill
in from the beach
justified and tired
who ordered the chicken with fries
the physical pleasure
of afternoons in bed
the slow meander
around the overpriced souvenir shops
a good novel
some poetry perhaps
and guaranteed weather
Published in Pushing Out the Boat
Issue 4, 2005
(Aberdeenshire Council)
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