Monday 21 September 2009

Change at Crewe


For TFE's Monday prompt:

Crewe – where it is always raining
and when it isn’t raining, the wind howls
like the lady in mauve who sits next to you on the bench
and looks perfectly normal at first

Crewe - where the tea would put hair
where there really shouldn’t be hair
though that can come in quite useful
against the aforementioned relentless wind

Crewe – where carriages retreat
in their twilight years
and every train north of Birmingham
grinds to a halt to join their gentle mouldering

Crewe – where the clocks run backwards
and you think you can’t get colder
but you can. And you wish you hadn’t
eaten your emergency Kit-Kat at Rugby.

Crewe – where mobiles malfunction,
the one public booth is phonecard only
and you haven’t got one
and all you want to do is get home.

7 comments:

Totalfeckineejit said...

Do you think you'll be getting a plaque too? Eat your heart out Paul Simon!(And John Bitchyman.)Wonder where you got the idea for this from? It's very funny yet visceral I can nearly feel the cold and wind.Love the line about the tea putting hair where no hair should be but my favourite stanza has to be.....

Crewe – where the clocks run backwards
and you think you can’t get colder
but you can. And you wish you hadn’t
eaten your emergency Kit-Kat at Rugby.


Deadly.Thanks for joining in EW.

Niamh B said...

I like the wind howling like the woman in mauve - as TFE says - it's a funny but touching poem

the verification word is mamsmen - someone's got to be getting paid to make these things up?!

Rachel Fox said...

Ah yes, the north. We love it but it's crap too.
I like the emergency kitkat. And the lady (who is sometimes me...).
x

NanU said...

Hmmmm. I'll have to visit Crewe just to see if it lives up to its interesting reputation! Great poem, full of humor and unexpected images. That lady in mauve....

Glynis Peters said...

LOL I went through Crewe for the first time, last week it was the only place in the area with dull skies.
Great work, very descriptive and I love the kit-kat line.

Titus said...

Ooh, really liked this. Disparate images and people and events all pulled together beautifully to create a single picture of place.

Crewe Station the location of my first "date" with my husband-to-be (he lived in Glasgow, me in Bristol, it seemed logical).
I was feeling rather nervous, as we had only met in a work situation, and my first, immortal, lines to him were: "You're not as tall as I remember."

Crewe: where you make friends and influence people.

Emerging Writer said...

Thanks.
Titus- bones of a poem yourself there I feel!