Three Poems by Jim Ferguson
MEETING JUNE ON SAINT STEPHEN'S STREET
sadness on your face
immense as the sky and
moon
which rises early evening
through a misty December
gloom
you are
tightly wrapped in a woollen coat,
scarf curling round your neck mingling
with your hair
our Robin has had a stroke
you tell me
soon he will be dead
PROFESSORS OF RHETORIC
(FOR ALL THE MASS COMMUNICATORS)
So
yirra professor of rhetoric
uryi
ah seeyeez everyday ya fannies
wankin on the box
why no be a bus driver
just be a bus driver
think yir spiel makes us feel any better
think yir the queens and kings of orgasm
ahm a man fur equality
fuck that equality of opportunity
thatsa con
itsa rigged fuckin world
rigged towards the christmas card list
of the likes of Bush and
of those and such as those
whove been stealin our labour
stealin our love and stealin our money
since those and such as those made it legal
Take me tae Cuba
did ah hear yi say,
naw, I didny think so
BALLYCASTLE, 1995
in the converted outhouse
washing my underwear
after the day’s extravagance
the night’s oblivion
this is the place to get on the drink
not off it
to get off it is what I came here for
that
and love, with all its twisted smiles
mystical joy, myths of tragedy and freedom –
there has to be a boundary
inside which you flourish –
I did not and you did not –
we followed, badly, the caller’s commands
danced with our four left feet
yet still, the beauty of moving
jostling other dancers
who knew what they were doing
understood traditional steps
felt their history under their feet –
ours was a history never learned
a future we could not understand
you blamed it on our education –
Scottish.
Jim Ferguson lives and writes in Glasgow. His collection the art of
catching a bus and other poems was published by AK Press (Edinburgh),
way back in 1994. Hopefully more new material out in the not-too-distant
future. His documentary film, Some Distant Day (Co-writer: Vincent Hunter),
was broadcast on Scottish Television on September 17th, 2004. "It's all
tasy tatties," says Ferguson.