Something New: Glyn Maxwell reads Companion Piece
Companion Piece
I notice for the four-and-a-quarter minutes
Annually my expertise is called for
At crystal clear headquarters
That all the world is glass. That I can see you
Seeing me, and when I tap you on
At teatime I will see you
Seeing yourselves again and just before
You tell me life got worse and let’s see how,
You show me your reporters
About to do their work or in mid-shoot
Or saying that went well or hey let’s do it
Hey let’s go again
For the viewers. Everything is glass
I understand, the On-and-Off, the All-or-
Nothing, Do-or-Die
Is all there is, small wonder half of us
Are facepalms through the day, the other half
Stark staring from the night.
No one knows, but those who know remember
The glass when it was walls and you saw nothing,
The building like a brain
But not a brain post-mortem and picked clean,
No an organ most mysterious, constrained,
Descending in a room
For who can say how many storeys, down
Through studios lost and shows you know in dreams
They never made again,
Archives grown so deep they generate
Fresh episodes sporadically, through bars
Like theatres like dance-halls
That couldn’t have been there but there they are
When the doors slide. Right then you realise
You’re not alone down here,
A sweet persistent face is asking questions,
Curious as a Dr Who companion
Nobody recalls
But we need your answers Doctor for the viewers
We need them or all life will end, we need them
Or the plot will just sound silly
So you had better start in your eccentric
Outfit, he or she is waiting there
With his or her big eyes
Wide open, trying to hope it’s not the end.
Don’t make them wait too long and don’t forget
Up there on the shattered streets
Tonight when you’ve remembered everything
And patiently explained and even though
Your explanation’s nonsense
We all shall raise a pint to you at The George
On Great Portland Street, on us or we’ll chip in
Now even the companion
Gets it and you put an arm around her
Or him as the sirens wail and we shall dance
All night in our cosy shelter.
Duration:
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