Blithe Nook

by Jude Cowan Montague

 
The girl on the corner,
if she gets that odour in her eye
you get out of the way.

In May,
the badger and the wolf,
(you understand these are symbolic names)
were arguing over the right road
as two men passed under the rails.

Beneath the innocent arch
the wolf hung back.
He crouched, and retied his shoelaces.
while the badger carried on.

There is always a quiet in these stories;
a moment when flowers
flavour the air.
Your breathing curdles bit by bit
into thick custardy silence.
A boy is fixed in a stream of traffic.

It was early.
'Are you the investigator?' she asked,
stretching her words into a very fine thread.
She circled him, smoking,
staring at his brogues. She
seemed to be making up her mind.

He wasn’t no badger,
whoever he was.
That boy shot a glance
right into the sky.
The moon juddered.
It began to pour down,
a ladder of water forming slowly.

There is always a movement in these confessions
when the mind opens
and love hits the throat
in a sheet of glass.
 
They were chosen;
mentally dancing to Bhangra edits for a short period.
 
The wolf
recalls tobacco and swearing.

* * * * *

"Blithe Nook" was first published in Jude Cowan Montague's pamphlet The Originals (Hesterglock Press).

Jude Cowan Montague worked for Reuters Television Archive for ten years. Her album 'The Leidenfrost Effect' (Folkwit Records 2015) reimagines quirky stories from the Reuters Life! feed. She produces 'The News Agents' on Resonance 104.4 FM. Her most recent book is The Originals (Hesterglock Press, 2017).