She said 'the cutest one'

She said 'the cutest one' and we were
on Charing Cross Rd., I think, or was it
Shaftesbury Avenue, anyway. I was

waiting for a response to some interview
questions, thinking I would like to read
the autobiography of T.S. Elliots` third

wife but would my Mum? It`s her birthday
afterall and so patiently, taking the time
to browse on Oxford Street, at this hour.

Waiting outside - oh I don`t know - a soap
store with addictive oils and a warsh cloth
and a pink box, me - with the book in bag -

waiting. I`m a country boy, I said, I`m a
countryboy I come from the country and
when I get in grade five I`m going to be a

teenager. A teenager. And so I said to my
wife who was walking so slowly behind, so
patiently I said you know that bus clipped

my ear, but I don`t have a headache and
my wife said, 'I'm in shock' still she kept
walking, walking along, I`m so tired I

cannot even move she said and so we just
kept shopping, shopping for the correct gift,
fighting up the streets, the streams of people

smiling like people who are lifting up heavy
things, straining to win races they cannot win.
© John Stiles