Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

After lunch
and leaving school
to wander with friends
down streets

nearby the school
Sutcliffe sneezed
and went
to his trouser pocket

for his handkerchief
what the fuck
you got there?
O’Brien asked

do you often
wipe you nose
with a pair of girl’s
underclothes?

Sutcliffe took
the underwear
from his nose
and said

Fuck me
how did they get there?
Davies laughed
and you looked

at the small
white underwear
held in Sutcliffe’s hand
whose are they?

O’Brien said
she a friend of yours Eddie?
they belong
to my cousin Minnie

close to her
are you Sutcliffe?
Davies said
my old lady

must have put them
in my top drawer
by mistake
Sutcliffe said

blushing and stuffing them
in his trouser pocket
good looking is she
this Minnie?

O’Brien said
now I don’t have anything
to wipe my nose on
Eddie said

can I borrow yours O’Brien?
he asked
no
O’Brien said

I know where
your nose has been
Eddie looked at Davies
who shook his head

can I borrow yours?
he asked you
you gazed
at his running nose

and his red eyes
you can borrow
the handkerchief
in my top pocket

you said
my old man puts it
in there each morning
you said

he thinks
it makes me
more upper class
thanks

said Sutcliffe
and took
the white folded
handkerchief

and wiped his nose
just as well
they weren’t
your old lady’s knickers

Sutcliffe or you’d
have suffocated
Davies said
and O’Brien laughed

and you saw
Sutcliffe sneeze
into the handkerchief
and you wondered

what your father would
have thought
seeing Sutcliffe’s nose
in the white cloth

and yellow snot
and you thought
and smiled
and said

to yourself
I’m not
what he thinks
I am

upper class
I’m not.