Richard Barrett

the third person


1.

says
wow-factor — and
stunning mixture of
the old and the new
an
ambiguous area
:ownership of the home
<can't do accents>
an unfamiliar voice enquires
how she is
in
white rooms (scrubbed sterile)
blue-gowns
and blood

"it's not right
to say we talk more different
would not have put it like that
wouldntve — put it
like that"

incomers looked at funny
amount lent:
five times annual salary — all bets on in
the
delinquent casino — no
risk — as
bad debt a growth market / wth
aldi home-brand lines
on the table

one! two! three! four! count
contractions — in

unfamiliar
accents


2.

voices contract would not have to
wouldntve           been so
keen
last years hook-ups with drunks
forgotten           leaving
'the partnership' dissolved — a new one
in place

not often out anymore—an
hopeful
online dater
inviting friends to
get the ball rolling

                                  :personal

approval rating — a

fall in the polls — et cetera
no
wow-factor
stunning mixture of
the old and the old
four walls
a high ceiling
renting the flat — rather
'studio apartment'
two
differing / trajectories

consolations
: family and home

that one
(a fortiori):
knows how to use
                               a pen

a day passed without writing                 adults write
       small percentage for fun        have usually read
a lot of books                  found time to read so much
        the opposite of mysterious              years spent
doing nothing                 leave the room when asked
         what they did the weekend just gone           no
mystery about them                      not 'privy' to any
secrets       (despite masonic-seeming handshakes)
            just read        a lot of books            they think
i could do better than that   absence of distractions
      pen and paper or computer              inexpensive
way of passing their time            their efforts either
encouraged or ignored                   preoccupied with
                                       re-writing what went before


3.

encasing — can't
afford a cold — they'll
all end up ill
off work
sick — means a weekend
over time bar
eats oranges for
advertised
medicinal effects — it's
a starter home
a
good area — joint income
(family looks after child)
to travel links and
entertainments — close proximity
they
make friends
quick

with
no idea how to live reads
thomas chatterton

one room a
high-ceiling
those years (imagined from
a future perspective)
where it all began
finally

writes


4.

writes

as of 1st next month will
will no longer be — residing


5.

in every beginning

the end in every beginning

easily forgotten
that
      things end             not
remembered            the
lesson
neither learnt (though
should have been
in
the midst of
the good times
find it hard to (really hard to
believe in
                 endings

one hundred and twenty percent

lent — five times
annual salary
repayability a concern
when debt no longer guaranteed
eastern
home — from
sell-on
abbey national safety-net removal
slowing circulation of
invisible
              money

and promises of money
and rumours of money

many
false-sightings
of
money


not really ignored                          some response
received                                   not blanket silence
                                                  inbox clogged with
template letters                                just changed
            the addressee          hands not shaken no
slaps on the back            though                   when
enters a room                               encouragement
from           knowing some people            so much
dependant on luck                                             can
suggest fraudulence                         the real price
      having been reduced        raises the question
               of motives                          whether to do
work that is good                       or to have people
know           who            you                               are


6.

*
approval rating a
fall in the polls
vacillating on — whether
to call an
attempts
to overthrow — the
knives
seemed to be out
until
economy gave opportunity
to lose — reputation
of
indecision — next
morning seemed

a war leader

(cigar and black dog expected
soon)

a severe contraction
— projection: two quarters consecutive
negative growth
(and then the rest)
needed to move fast
address book checked — some
calls to be made — knows
some people

BROUGHT IN FROM THE COLD

THIRD TIME LUCKY

NO-BRAINER RESHUFFLE

SHOCK RETURN A           'MASTERSTROKE'

the black dog smokes a cigar as
it carries —
him
      back and forth
                             *


7.

question of engagement                          under
                                 any obligation to get ones
hands dirty                            a testified feeling
of redundancy                   from who have had
events roll by             unable to stop them it's
a statement of intent                     measure of
how serious they are       the extent to which
they'll engage with the ordinary
         (or, as might be true: extraordinary) a
       question of conscience          good enough
to rebuild sex-partners of the past
                from lines broken eccentrically and
odd word juxtapositions with an
intensity almost autistic                    ambition
a variable requiring consideration
what achievements sought                         will
need answering as well                        capable
of providing
the only reply                       seemed suddenly
less pressing                          name recognition


contraction as painful as
much upheaval caused
end of boom-and-bust cycle
proclaimed — prematurely
though
due to unprecedented nature
the
old paradigm
indeed may not apply

the paradox of meaning
contraction as
harbinger of growth
family
getting bigger yet simultaneously
an enforced reduction
as
things shrink
become meaner — get
tighter
imposing
a northern return
crammed into — in-laws
attic-room — consolation:

people talk the same

elide
the quickest route known
path worn — by them
ages round here

good fortune with job
(so far)
unemployment anyway a
lagging indicator — peak
not predicted until
two years hence — chance
of riding downturn out the
close transport links
pass the house — and

it looks

smaller