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Something New: Glyn Maxwell reads Companion Piece

Companion Piece

I notice for the four-and-a-quarter minutes
Annually my expertise is called for
At crystal clear headquarters
That all the world is glass. That I can see you
Seeing me, and when I tap you on
At teatime I will see you

Seeing yourselves again and just before
You tell me life got worse and let鈥檚 see how,
You show me your reporters
About to do their work or in mid-shoot
Or saying that went well or hey let鈥檚 do it
Hey let鈥檚 go again

For the viewers. Everything is glass
I understand, the On-and-Off, the All-or-
Nothing, Do-or-Die
Is all there is, small wonder half of us
Are facepalms through the day, the other half
Stark staring from the night.

No one knows, but those who know remember
The glass when it was walls and you saw nothing,
The building like a brain
But not a brain post-mortem and picked clean,
No an organ most mysterious, constrained,
Descending in a room

For who can say how many storeys, down
Through studios lost and shows you know in dreams
They never made again,
Archives grown so deep they generate
Fresh episodes sporadically, through bars
Like theatres like dance-halls

That couldn鈥檛 have been there but there they are
When the doors slide. Right then you realise
You鈥檙e not alone down here,
A sweet persistent face is asking questions,
Curious as a Dr Who companion
Nobody recalls

But we need your answers Doctor for the viewers
We need them or all life will end, we need them
Or the plot will just sound silly
So you had better start in your eccentric
Outfit, he or she is waiting there
With his or her big eyes

Wide open, trying to hope it鈥檚 not the end.
Don鈥檛 make them wait too long and don鈥檛 forget
Up there on the shattered streets
Tonight when you鈥檝e remembered everything
And patiently explained and even though
Your explanation鈥檚 nonsense

We all shall raise a pint to you at The George
On Great Portland Street, on us or we鈥檒l chip in
Now even the companion
Gets it and you put an arm around her
Or him as the sirens wail and we shall dance
All night in our cosy shelter.

Release date:

Duration:

3 minutes

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