Illuminated Window

Empty of shadows and making a shadow

(Bill Manhire)

Sitting in with
this family, sprawled
on its furniture

you are made to ask
the simplest questions.
Is it their sun

or hours? Which way do shadows
run here, what hemisphere
is this, that grants observer status

at a patient barnyard colloquium
on the globe and all its bright
ideas, where the delegates tell

by showing what you think
you know but are not
slow enough to understand.

Imagining you don't belong
here, a sulky teenage visitor
sentenced to a long stretch

in the country without television,
detained among elderly aunts
and longing for razzle dazzle, not reflection

page 63

you hang out below the washing line
or at the window with its missing
pane and overlook the way

the world drops in
‘for your entertainment
and edification’—

travelling showman,
suitcase filled
with the properties of light.