room5nat51819

Brooklyn Cop   Built like a gorilla but less timid,                                     thick‑fleshed, steak‑coloured, with two hieroglyphs in his face that mean trouble, he walks the sidewalk and the 5         thin tissue over violence. This morning, when he said, "See you, babe" to his wife, he hoped it, he truly hoped it. He is a gorilla to whom "Hiya, honey" is no cliché.   10       Should the tissue tear, should he plunge through into violence, what clubbings, what gunshots between Phoebe's Whamburger         and Louie's Place.   Who would be him, gorilla with a nightstick, 15       whose home is a place he might, this time, never get back to?   And who would be who have to be his victims?   by Norman MacCaig

Aunt Julia          Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic        very loud and very fast.        I could not answer her —        I could not understand her.   5       She wore men's boots        when she wore any.        — I can see her strong foot,        stained with peat,        paddling with the treadle of the spinningwheel 10      while her right hand drew yarn        marvellously out of the air.          Hers was the only house        where I've lain at night        in the absolute darkness 15      of a box bed, listening to        crickets being friendly.          She was buckets        and water flouncing into them.        She was winds pouring wetly 20      round house-ends.        She was brown eggs, black skirts        and a keeper of threepennybits        in a teapot.          Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic 25      very loud and very fast.        By the time I had learned        a li