This is how it will be in a year, he says –
Nina Simone’s Feeling Good in his head;
The big swing band bursting in like God
Or a new pay-scale. Think positive, he says.
The on-time train advances without delay.
He has the laptop out, the mobile on.
A swift keeps pace with the speeding train
Then catches the sun before twisting away.
Perfect. So perfect he could be dreaming.
Precisely. Thinking a thing doesn’t make it so,
Or wanting it. He can see it clearly now.
He’ll walk right in to chair the meeting
And the music, the swift, the sun – whatever –
None of it will touch on the agenda.
From Matthew Clegg’s sequence Officer, which appears in his third collection Cazique (Longbarrow Press, 2018). Click here for more information and to order the book.
Longbarrow Press 