TIME AND PLACE Poem by Alfred Schaffer

‘So it's true then?' A small car jolts along a country road,
a quivering focal point, seen out of the corner of an eye, tufts of

cotton wool above the green valley. ‘I see, I see what you can't see!'
Roaming around and getting lost till a solution would emerge

and if only this could have been made visible: our laborious return,
how late it got, the one-off sharpness of an overwhelming

decor, the dead weight. Pinned down. ‘Now you have to ask what!'
To stand up or keep lying down, lie down or keep standing up,

at night too this strange proliferation refused to stop,
hold on to my hand. ‘Hallo?' The power of repetition. ‘Hal-lo?'