It’s 1967, and summer’s hot,
and I have trailed beyond the city’s rim
to where the grass is brown, till I am not
a Londoner – I watch the swallows skim –
I’m lost, beyond suburban reckoning.
I slip through fences, swing on each low bough
and, by this coppiced world’s strange beckoning,
a ten-year-old is freed from self somehow.
Summer ’76 was hot too –
a bedsit with the windows thrown open,
and me curled, back against my bed,
bum going to sleep
on the hard floorboards.
More than a book in my hands –
Alabama was in my head,
and my mind was in moving shadows,
running from Boo Radley,
full of innocence,
just like he was,
and Tom was;
seeing Atticus,
and tasting courage on the air.
It is now, and far too cold for Alabama. Though I am deliberately lost in the wood, criss-crossing the trodden paths, risking sprains from hidden holes and tussocks, scratches from thin, grey branches on a thin, grey backdrop… I know a thing or two, and most of all, I know what I have to let slip though my fingers. Myself. In my oldest jeans, and in a boy’s zipper-jacket, and in shoes that should have been condemned, I would go deeper if I could, right to the spot where Bob Ewell died. I long to turn around, run to find a tyre to swing on, and to see a mad dog shot… and I am Scout.
Author notes
"To Kill a Mockingbird" - Harper Lee
In a list
A contest entry
- Music or book inspired contest by Leech Lover.
300 points, ended April 6, 2008, 11 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
1 - 8 of 8
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Nice, nice, very nice.,..
My dear Ms. Mairi,
This descrbes my feelings I read this (thanks for the link.) This not all new story is it? No, this some of your story entwined with the book yes?
I enjoyed it very much and your point is taken.
Good morrow to you,
Eyec
PS: I borrowed the verdict line from the song Nice, Nice, Very Nice wriitten by Ambrosia and Kurt Vonegutt, Jr.
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Precisely!
There are elements of my own life, my experience reading the book, how the story has remained in my mind, along with the actual story.
Thank you for your comment.
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very well written and it protrays the book well. good job.
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Thank you.
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You my dear sister are a born story teller and I mean that in the most complementary sense. This is great!
Love,
Amera♥
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I love it when a book takes over my reality, when putting it down to pick up a cup, or blow my nose or anything else becomes painful. When the phone ringing has you wondering how it fits into the story
where your parents are characters in the book and where you cannot remember your name
Tolkien...
Dickens...
Shakespeare
Dorothy Sayers
Who the hell needs reality -
A very imaginative piece of work. The way you weave elements of your past and present life with elements from the book is impressively done. I thoroughly enjoyed the result.
Bill
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What impresses ME is that you got EXACTLY what I was trying to do. Thank you Bill, I really appreciate your comment.
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