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Remote

Author: 
Ra Page

Although I only use a few

its rack of buttons feels familiar

– a scientific calculator

to school kids yet to work out pi.

 

I play the channels with one thumb,

cross by stepping stones of touch,

touch, touch from floodlit football pitch

to chat show guest, to this sit com.

 

But now I’ll have to share the thing,

give up my relay race from news

to news, budge over for someone else

to sit, with tired legs, strange

 

tastes. She points afresh: to archive

footage, video-recorded

lifestyles…jobs I once considered,

places I thought I’d one day live.

 

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From Smiths Knoll No 26 (2001)

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