Inter-Departmental Boxing Match – Written Thursday 9th January 2025

Inter-Departmental Boxing Match

Maybe in your eyes
I am too soft
for the corporation—
inter-departmental boxing match.

Maybe the
“lady in waiting”
has secret plans to hatch?
Maybe it’s cold because I am outside
and the door has not latch.

Maybe in your eyes
I am too soft,
for this
“seconds out… round one” affair.
And maybe in the big house,
there are giant spiders with enticing lairs.

Maybe all this, me,
it’s just a defensive reaction.
Maybe I am too soft,
and maybe the days of the week
leave me looking weak.

Maybe there needs to be solid—
or even crystallised—actions,
and in your eyes I just do not speak.

Maybe I am wrong,
and in the canteen,
all the intelligence is distilled in bottles—
the type
that have a particular shade of bottle green,
because in my eyes the intelligence is largely unseen.

But I suspect they have a constant leak,
or the return price leaves them looking cheap.

Maybe in your eyes
I am too soft,
for the inter-departmental boxing match.

But that’s me, that’s me inside.
And I know, I know the cost,
but there can be no championships like this—
not when winning means so much is actually lost.

James Garratt – Thursday 9th January 2025

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