• Joanna Seldon

  • It’s a Swinging Life

     

    Come on a windy night and you’ll find me

    Slammed against my mate.  We are

            Inseparable.

            In cracked duet

    We creak, the gust tugging our chains,

    Rocked, ridden by unseen ghosts.

     

    Daytimes, I’m busy, dizzy sometimes

    Watching the roundabout whirl; steadied

            When mothers push

            Small children who

    Can’t be left alone, in rhythmic motion

    As if tilting them to settled sleep.

     

    Ten year olds jostle, shove, reclaim me,

    Their light seats scarcely touching mine

            As they fly

            High, up high,

    Their voices shrill with the thrill that spreads before them

    As they sense the giddying soar of their life ahead.

     

    Evening falls, and we shudder, awaiting

    A lurching battery – bottles and boys,

            Crueller, clumsier

            Than the wind.

    As I groan under a bloated weight,

    His girlfriend fixes her lipstick astride my mate.