The Spike [or Victoria University College Review 1961]
Public Speaking
Public Speaking
I am an orator, profound and lucid,
Before the bathroom glass
The fluency rebounds from the mirror
And arms complete the animated farce.
It is a face, vain and familiar
Seen by one other, it leers
Confident by its single sight
Undaunted by the non-existent sneers.
If a crowd could become a face
One nose, two ears and hair
As this surface reflects, I could avoid
My stumbling tongue and their foreign stare.
N. W. Bilbrough