A Morning Train,
the Start of Term

Mrs. Griff’s Wyman’s Bookstall is open
and the stern boy from the Haven Road, politics at LSE,
buys The Times and The Economist. Tim, younger,
on his drama course in Cardiff, buys The Guardian.
The girl is nearly late, swings a lovely smile
at Mrs. Griff, buys chocolate, and when she’s set
in the compartment, in the corner (the boys facing
each other, reading), she has her artist’s pad.
She sketches Swansea’s industrial landscape,
later some racehorse country, and in between
the smiling Irishman who is taking tickets.
She is heading back to her school of art and muses:
on cinemas, the Rolling Stones, the coffee bars,
her hot pants      and a hot time in old London town tonight.
Her sister in Carnhedryn and the sleeping baby.

Robert Nisbet

If you have any comments on this poem,  Robert Nisbet would be pleased to hear from you.