A Thousand Waltzers Turning So Slow
i never thought –
i would be on the metaphorical tram
leaving,
the hard road,
just driving
and i am not sure
when the town stopped thriving
i have defended it from it’s own internal wars
embraced it,
and fought for its non specific cause
tall hats,
penny farthings,
kiss-me-quick,
a nudge, a wink, a, ‘hello darling…’
fairgrounds to spare ground
sun lounge,
to this post modernist brutalist town
but i never thought i would go
never turn out the light –
on a thousand waltzers turning so slow
those that have
and those that do not
those with a bundle of cash
leaving now,
hard to believe, so hard to believe
James Garratt – July 2013
More poems at
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/
More about this blog, The Boy Behind the Glasses, here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/2020/01/08/the-boy-behind-the-glasses-an-introduction/
More poems from 2013 here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/category/poems-and-writing-2013/
A Thousand Waltzers Turning So Slow – Written July 2013 (Aged 38)
The Boy Behind The Glasses. Poetry and Writing 
The starting lines of your poem are amazing… hard & clear, I can see the passenger of the tram’s mouth pressed tight into a straight line.
“fairgrounds to spare ground
sun lounge,
to this post modernist brutalist town
but i never thought i would go
never turn out the light –”
… this… just wow. Outstanding choice of words.
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This is one of those life poems, I left Southend on Sea where I’d grown up and we moved down to Devon. I guess this is split into two halves, the first being, what had become of Southend, once a traditional English Seaside Town and then the second part, the actual leaving. It’s all about the relationship you have with your home town and where you grow up.
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