Sunday, January 9, 2011

Bus ticket - Bitter Bussing

This week's prompt from Emerging Writer was to take Tim Minchin's lead and write something bitter and twisted and vengeful. (Again this week we were spoiled with several options and choices to choose, but this one appealed most) I love Tim Minchin - especially the song about "If I didn't have you... someone else would surely do" but bitter and vengeful isn't that easy to do on the spot, so I trawled through the Poem a Day files from last year and found this... written for a lady who I interviewed in the course of my volunteering at one of the festivals - a delightful person

Lady

There’s a lady well preserved
Striking cheek bones, make up light
Staying in a hotel
Over from Lisbon, overnight
Says art shouldn’t be about money
So won’t tell what she’s spending
To the funny one with clipboard
Who’s been commissioned to find out
What it’s all worth
Her husband rents a car
And she blithely turns away
And talks to her friends
The many famous writers

When I’m a famous writer
I don’t want any friends like that



I thought this one fit the theme too - and it's timely... see if ye can guess who it is

Competition

Your name is after fading, it got drank up in a shower
magnetic lights through stadiums fly eaten in the hour
they came there once for sport to test their expert brawn
but ended up with lives cut short, with blood spilled on the lawn
Paper hats in dressing rooms and infamous quotations
phones going off in interviews majestic situations
refuse to sell what isn't there your brooding stare continues
your body is a theatre, of muscle, speed and sinews

Proper Bus Tickets will be found over here very shortly...

9 comments:

Emerging Writer said...

Thanks Niamh.
Can I be your friend when you're a famous writer?
More links up now here

Louise said...

Loved the poem, but a failure at the competition! They don't seem to be my thing!! I'll be your friend even when you are famous!!!!

Peter Goulding said...

You're famous already Niamh!
Intrigued by the second one - the incredible Muhammad Ali?

Niamh B said...

EW - only if you're still nice to the clipboard holders too! Great prompts
Tks Socks - oh I don't know about you and competitions you seem to get along just fine.
Hmm infamous in my own family Peter! On the second one it's a bit closer to home, but I can see where you'd have got that.

Totalfeckineejit said...

I thought you were already famous?
Really like the second pome most. Is it about Twink?

The Bug said...

I've no clue about who the second poem is about - but I'm very curious! It's a good poem.

I don't like it when people use lofty ideals to disguise being stingy (although to be fair I don't know that that was her motivation).

Niamh B said...

Surprisingly not TFE, recently tested on a trip to a swish restaurant in wellington boots, and shouting "Do you know who I AM?" as they threw me out - apparently they didn't.
Thanks Bug, I will reveal all tomorrow - will give people a day to mull (no it's not twink either).
I think she was just very unwilling to be talking to a pleb when there were more exciting people around, much less disclose what she was planning to spend at the festival which was the general question being posed to everyone. (probably hoping that gave the impression she was going to spend loads and loads, so much she could hardly start to put a number on it)

Padhraig Nolan said...

Cool. Postcards from literativille :->

Niamh B said...

Tks Padhraig - mystery inspiration for poem 2 provided by Keano, of the Roy variety.
(- although alot of it is from elsewhere too - don't ask where as I can't really remember now.)