JACKET BYE & BIO

 

without ceremony
my old leather jacket

was retired one autumn

the heft of bottles
had really stretched 

the pockets right out

&

its tortured lining

was in sad disarray 

( my uniform had softened now

  into sicknote rehab chic )

leathers still soft as cream tho

only rigid as a biscuit

round its cuff sleeve holes

oh the things it has seen

& the stories it could tell !

also - the zip is fine

A CERTAIN ARROGANCE

i see a certain arrogance in retired drivers driving some '85 Jaguar or high-end Rover when there were high-end Rovers, bought with retirement annuity or whatever, when they cruise slow and pointedly sedate down the crescent, him fat and red faced and unsmiling with the wife, and he'd call her the wife, sitting silent next to him, both in good overcoats, her clutching a bag on her lap, him full of thoughts of owning the road because of his massive no-claims - because the car is all he has to remind he was a man and it is blandly spotless, has regular garage visits where he bores the mechanics talking about its smooth running and borderline classic status, and he makes the grandkids clean it for meagre pocket money while moodily supervising, yes he cruises SO slow, the turns calculated and inyourface smooth and neither of them look left or right out the side windows and neither of them see me sweaty on a muddy bicycle judging them accurately
yes, a certain arrogance
indeed