Orphaned Islands (Un)poetry

They said the lab supervisor had been something in her time,
apparently, so the old staff said,
could show the young ones a trick or two.
Legend lived on
even if half, was half true –
stunts and parties and trailing assignments late.
Had left uni aged 20 with child – unplanned
contraception Russian roulette in those days,
had two more,
returned in her 30’s completing a Bachelor’s
and then Masters.
Now oversaw year one – her commencement.

I handed in late, she raised an eyebrow and said
“ I’ll mark it now,
hmmmm,
yes
okay
not bad,
pretty good in fact.”
Then
“I could swear I’ve seen this before – copied,
she knew.

Reform, some do with revivalist fervour
some by mute,
others collude with the present, to evict the past.
She winked, crossed out 7 ½ and wrote 7 – out of 10.

Smoking was king
and queen during my growing up.
Our house was unusual,
two parents neither of whom did :
movie theatres,
shopping malls,
buses, trains, aircraft,
open, welcome, extolled. Except school pupils –
forbidden – underground – behind the bike sheds.

At the shopping mall
I was unlocking my bike
and the man guessed to be in his late fifties
was smoking
“ look,”
he said, waving the glowing tip
“ 45 years later, and I’m back where I started,
smoking behind the bike sheds.”

We arrived as the 1960’s became the 70’s
It was so different – the nation’s largest city
another country after our provincial hometown
where everybody knew our father’s sisters
and our mother’s brothers
who and when.
My parents brave and nervous,
bold breaking away
but timid
of busy roads
unknown directions
and urban motives.
Just out of single figures
two schoolgirls offer chocolate at the bus stop
my mother says I was wise, it probably contained drugs.
Parental caution is infectious I feel like an alien.

High school and university
adolescence and early young adult hood,
parties and concerts and some drug dabbling
home
I know the roads and shortcuts, the places to go
speak the patois
inhabit the same urban superiority
look at the rest of the country as does London or New York.

28 years away
my sister seriously ill, I returned for five weeks
the traffic is insane
the roads all appear shifted
people are busy and impatient
I feel unbelonging … alien.