Category: Unexpected

Staff said they didn’t know what happened
to this about to graduate class
the least motivated any professor could recall
and tenure remembered 37 years.
Perhaps this explained the temperature
the lecture room 15°C
always
possibly an attempt to focus attention
to prevent apathy stumbling to sleep.

One morning
winter has turned chill to frigid
the class wit enters
“ fuck it’s cold…..I’ll have to go and have a wank to warm up ”
as laughter dies
from the back row
wisdom or experience
“never wank in the morning
you don’t know who you’ll meet in the afternoon.”

After fundraising
and all personal savings
including yet to be credited salary
she was $10,000 short
$10,000 short of a dream
dream maker – who doesn’t want to be?
Her sister and brother-in-law will lend the money
mates rates
0% and “ when you can …. just this once.”

She can accept the expedition invitation
expeditions still expeditions then
yet to be mouse click adventure tourism.
Expeditions
the spirit of Mallory and Irvine
Shackleton and Scott
endurance, bravery and deprivation.
A remote peak in the Himalaya
moderate by Nepal metres
but unclimbed by this route
and women.

Before departure the leader briefs members
a sensitive matter
no one wants to tempt fate but
if chance draws the Joker
body recovery could be difficult
or vanished by crevasse or avalanche
next of kin should be just in case aware.

After dinner and toasts
after dessert and chocolates
after coffee
she told them
her sister and brother-in-law
her benefactors, her friends
the ones she was closest to in the whole world.

It was difficult to say she said
but
in the event of tragedy she might be without trace
or unrecoverable
they looked stunned
“what about our money?”

On the track
standing above me
she turned and spoke.
“You don’t really want to walk do you?”
A statement. Not an enquiry.

She said I wanted to be with her
was attracted to her.
Stammering retractions and denials
are met with a softer tone
and a slow advance.
anorak tenting breasts – at eye level
knowing dark overthrows uncertain twilight.

A decade and a half older
mother of four
seeking attractiveness, settling for hormones.
“Did I want to go with her?”
Go with her
a euphuism not heard before
but needing no translation
desire passes straight from hope to urgency.

Did I know a place?
Yes.
A smile gives permission.
One condition
I’m not permitted to look…… stretchmarks.

Afterwards
furtive glances prompt another question.
Had I ever seen a naked woman?
Once at 18
in an indifferent smoky room
where women are paid to remove their clothes.
“That doesn’t count.”
An invitation to a private viewing.