The Next Night 1961 Poem by Terry Collett

I should watch her
Jupp said

watch who?
I said

the girl who you
were talking to
this morning
by the school fence
he said
she's a tease

is she?
I said
knowing whom he meant
but not saying

yes she offers it
but then shuts you
out like a clam
he said
staring at me

she just came up to me
I said
and started talking

what's she talk about then?
he said

about birds and butterflies
and how she'd like
to work on a farm
I said

he studied me carefully
are you having me on?
if she did then
she's changed her tune
normally she's on
about sex and doing things
he said

do you know her then?
I said

he looked away
and stared at the girl's
playground to see
if she was looking our way
but she wasn't
because I had already
looked to see
if she was around

I've heard rumours
he said
from others who
she tried things on with

but she's only 13
I said
surely she wouldn't
do such things?

he shrugged his shoulders
just saying what I heard
he said

I won't go near her then
I said smiling

best not to
he said smiling too
and we walked on
by the fence
he talking about
being a cowman
when he left school

I thought of Lizbeth
and that morning
and how she cornered me
by the fence
and asked me
if I thought of her
and she not knowing then
how many of the other
boys did

and that time
she took me to her room
while her mother was out
and tried to get me
to do things which I didn't
which I didn't think right
but then thought of her
most of the next night.