A poem

Just been rooting through my bookshelves in a (so far) successful attempt to avoid revising for the exam I have on Tuesday. I will probably cook my tea next, then settle down to some really serious revision later.

Lost Going to Shropshire

Just out of Euston
on a trip to Shrewsbury
changing at Crewe
the announcement, 'If anyone has lost anything
please contact the guard at the back of the train.'
I like the ambiguity
just as I like the ambiguity in art, dance and poetry.
Passengers invade the vestibules
to check their luggage.
I imagine a queue forming at the train's back,
with various lostnesses:
I've lost a glove.
I've lost a gland.
I've lost fourteen nil at blow football in my time.
I've lost the ability to live purely for the moment.

John Hegley