SCENE 1

Chorus.

to rope
to grope
to stroke
to tighten
the rope
that ties
and binds

to obey
to handle
to yield
to grasp
to impress
to abridge
to test

to hide
to abort
to disclose
to abscond
from the rope
that ties
and binds

Exit.

Laughing
about the forks in our road
is only fun
when we're eating
drinking
and listening
to Doo Wop

Episode 2: Standing On Front Porches

Sunday 16th and BA apologises for forgetting my suitcase
But I'm not fretting! I have five millilitres of lip balm and Katie's closet.
10.30 am and they wave "Don't leave" and we wave "Don't want to"
All we want to do is stand on this porch,
Collect another point of view -
You'd bring the books
I'd bring the music
They'd visit us on rainy days.

Breakfast in Amherst then in Newport by 4.45
We dine at Christie's
Converse with an economic waiter,
He offers us two tickets
Dilemma -
What do we do?
Resolved by playlist no.1:
What can we do?

Monday 17th 9.45 am and two New Yorkers take us down to Ocean Drive
Mom says "No talkin' to strangers"
We talk, share thoughts on city-life with its 'no stare policy'
Yet gesticulation in abundance.
Piling in the back seat / loo, bin, fag
Generating steam heat / fag, loo, bin
Pulsating to the back beat / bin, fag, loo
Two cities converse side by side.

11 am Newport mansions: Kingscote, Marble House,
Real french furniture, real silver trinkets -
A consumption of too much of too much.
It's lunchtime and we're on the Coastal Walk
It gives me time to think, to think of Suzy Lee.
I'm told missing her is unhealthy
More unhealthy than cheese on pasta, cheese on toast, cheese on cheese?
Tonight we eat out - Pizza on the porch of a stranger.

Tomorrow to The Armory -
To antiques and fine art
To stare into the eyes of someone I could love for a while (at least).
We catch the 2.30 bus to Providence
You call me anti-social but I'm listening to what Joey says Danny says -
It's crucial to the understanding of an emotional life on the road.
The 5 pm to Copley
Where our map stops unfolding.

I change in the corner of a service station
And end up asleep on your lap.

Episode 1: Sleeping On Front Porches

I pull in at 2.30 AM
From Gate 6
Seat 37D
Where passenger baggage must not contain radioactive material.
Up Route 116 to South Mandelle Hall,
Back to school. Ring the bell. Walking blues.
Past Lower Lake where nothing stirs
Except for lampost flicker outside Village Commons.

12.00 Meet Katie for lunch outside Art Museum
Where Hetch Hetchy Canyon 'stimulates inquisitive looking'.
Then we lie on Skinner Green with The Bostonians, lip balm and playlist no.1.
Next week we will compare immigration, healthcare, politicians in "Taxi!"
Repeated by sandy-haired boys.
We will stand in the place of American revolutionaries
But do nothing. Instead "Where you guys heading?" and the promise
One day we'll be out in the rain and suddenly everything'll change.

Minuteman Express. Amherst Bookshop
To be [re] born in Dickinson's doorway.
We hold hands with an Amherstian girl talking of lacklustre education
And friends that we hardly know.
Thursday 13th 1.30 PM Meet Sarah and Emily in Northampton
Ice-cream with a Rock n' Roll twist as fools fall in love over american pie
Outside the winters are too cold and the summers are over too soon
So today and always I will carry my clear plastic umbrella.

To the greenhouse for a slice of your soil,
To the Bookmill for a taste of your choco beer,
To Skinner Mountain for a picnic on a cliff face,
To Hangers for a concoction of short skirts, sticky chickens and chardonnays.
Yours is the first face that I saw.
Back to hers, to dozy lightening, to misty drinks
Where my mac slowly endures intoxication.
Walk with me Suzy Lee.

Saturday 15th 11.20 PM lit up snowmen mark out your door
We're here to live and swing on front porches
I don't know you
But parties we like
Show and tell, free beer and music frothing out of basements.
Playlist no.1 notes contradiction:
Getting by just fine here on minimum wage
But being here too long, it's time to move.

I change in the back of your truck
And end up asleep on your porch.

What's it going to be then, eh?

Winter Horrorshow. Alex there sat
"Is that
Georgie?" Our is newspapers. Give
Three O
Being evening
that have everybody neither
else heighth -

To be or not to be,
A commodity.

A commodity to be,
Not to be an oddity.

Be a commodity,
Be not an oddity.

Ode to the Pink Paper Book

You lie next to my Pocket Penguin Thesaurus
Real Homes tells you it's called being "shabby chic"
I remember the shabbiness of your chic
with your expert tips on getting the job done.

I want to get the job done too
I want property projects that pay
I want to add value to your home
the shelf
the Pocket
Penguin
Thesaurus
green.

But stained skin,
frailty,
pirouettes,
and a thimble
prevents me from being the
shabby
to your
chic.