#poem #poetry #amwriting #sketchbook #acting

not being much of a conversationalist
always forgetting to ask the small importancies
    like 'I would so like to hear you tell me what I already know'
    and
    'is it true you only got the job because of your father'
it was odd that I thought myself fitted for the stage

perhaps odder that others thought so to

one imagines actors to be artists
and in uncharitable moments I imagine so to
but years of drama school
with backstage vaginas thrust into my face
    during quick costume changes
          at other times too
          but one does not like to boast
and a love of poetry drummed out of anyone with a soul
    for fear of vowel sounds incorrectly rounded
it is hardly surprising that I abhor television

all that remains of that dream
is a love of drink
and the pleasure of applause
     providing it does not last too long
     or lead to conversation
     unless it is obscure and interesting
     preferably about a subject the fashionable think dull
          the theatre of craig
          brian pattern
          the origin of street names

at around the time that I decided to not even try
    I would have dropped out
    but I was too fearful the council
    would pursue me for return of the fees
I would sit in the back row of the Drayton Arms
    affected Joe Orton style leather cap at a jaunty angle
and scribble lines of verse
                                         of the worthy self important kind
                                              what other ideas does a student have
                                              except revolution
but privately the verse I wrote
took delight in the ordinary
in the deliberately unartistic
small cartoons of life in a most cartoonish style

perfectly suited to the increasingly bit parts I was assigned