Oops! I failed to blog yesterday’s Sestina! Here it is. Words suggested by Gary “the bear” Hughes. I don’t think he loves plumbing, though.
At closing time he looks around and drains
His pint. Outside the lads are smoking pipes
And chatting as he sets off down the block
But he allows a tiny sigh to leak
Between his lips. The thing that makes him stop
Him self from joining in, is, he’s a cock.
At least he’s fairly certain he’s a cock:
Unpopular. He thinks his presence drains
The life from conversation. He can’t stop
Himself from going on about the pipes
He fixed today, or how he found a leak.
Almost impossible to reach and block
But he did it. But then he feels a block
Imagines that he sounds like such a cock
To everybody else. It seems to leak
From him: this fascination with the drains
He can’t talk about anything but pipes.
And so he has decided he should stop
Talking. It seems the only way to stop
The people that he knows from fully block-
Ing him from their lives. So his vocal pipes
Are rusty now. But now and then he’ll cock
An ear and hear when someone says “my drains
Are blocked. I think my toilet’s got a leak”
Then he allows a tiny smile to leak
Onto his face. He waits until they stop
Complaining, then he says “I’ll fix your drains
It doesn’t sound too serious. A block-
Age in the pipe. Don’t worry, Cock,
No charge. My pleasure, working with the pipes.
And then he tells them all about the pipes.
The challenges of sorting out a leak
Someone buys him a drink, and he’s the cock
Of all the pub. Nobody makes him stop
And just for once he feels no social block
preventing him from talking about drains.
He’s not a cock; he just likes fixing pipes
He loves the drains, there’s never been a leak
He couldn’t stop. He sets off down the block.
Tom Juniper Poetry 