Will Ingrams responds to Alan Parry’s prompt to write a poem in response to an old photo. It’s always good to get poems inspired by the podcast and nice to share another one from Will who contributed his own prompt for the NaPoWriMo podcast.
A Photo From ’68
You, with the freckles and mole,
your not-long-enough hair and
that old donkey jacket, flashed
in the photobooth; Geoff there
too, looking equally vacant, what
in a teenage hell were you at?
We’d ridden the miles into town,
Lambretta, him, a Vespa me,
searching for something (shoes,
or a record?), but crammed in the
booth for a strip of damp photos;
this the survivor, and me.
But Geoff? I would tabulate
tunes for his guitar, hits of
the day, and feel less unwanted.
Was not of the in-crowd, that
dull Sixties Dick; we’d scooter
to Exbury, halves at the club.
A life totters, standing on
shells of friends cast-off,
deceased or mislaid, left behind
when your bus pulled away,
rattled on to the next stop,
a cold, draughty station.
Will Ingrams
Poetry Non-Stop 