Boy/Girl

i

Wednesday in maths Miss Rolfe has it boy/girl
Boy spies glued to Girl's folder
Youki Kudoh and Masatoshi Nagase
from MYSTERY TRAIN
and he says - This plum from Japan
and she's all hey! and wow!
and he says quiet - Your dreads are incredible-looking
her long red dreads
and she she smiles
Irked, Miss Rolfe sighs loud
they zip it

ii

They shoulder their bags
she says - Thanks for saying about my dreads
     You live up The Frying Pan, right?
he says - Uh-huh
     I see you coming from The Hill
-It's me all right
     not easily mistaken for some other girl


iii

Next lesson after the bell
he says - If you want you can stop in
     do homework and such
She's keen
They work in the kitchen
a warm breeze in the foolscap
eraser shreds and water rings

iv

Next morning
she waits for him
He nods
she nods
that is that
no hand holding

v

One Saturday in May
Surya Namaskar
Supta Parivritasana
Sarvangasana
It's when she's in Shavasana
that he upside down kisses her
Her long fingers go through his hair
around his skull
Then his stuff her stuff
they play this
play that
a track
a side
CD
vinyl
hard drive
Hours and hours they up there
that one Saturday in May

vi

Then on the last ever day of school
a school tie bandana holds back her dreads
Where they can they walk in the shade
because she burns

He blows dust off vinyl
Jean Michel Jarre's REVOLUTIONS
folds up her uniform for her

He says something like
sometimes he wishes he could be her
She is still wet from her shower
wrapped in a towel
She takes the needle back to Tokyo Kid

They BBQ their school shit
the exercise books
homework records
and course work folders
Masatoshi Nagase and Youki Kudoh
and the school ties and all that's left is the bags
the dust and crumbs and staples in the bottom

Here is her mum and dad pulling up outside
in the Audi 8 just out of the car wash
she goes into her overnight bag
thrusts into his hand
Radiohead's OK COMPUTER blurting she knows he hates it but she wants him to have it and she knows he has things of hers which are things he likes but this is something she wants him to have which he doesn't like and she does not know why but it means more that way okay?
He says okay and she splits his lip
with a big smacker-oo

She puts her bag in the boot
slams it
slams her door getting in
waves out the back window
Then the bend in the road
He touches his lip and gets blood
goes in
goes upstairs
lies face down on his bed
and smells their smell

vii

Mum drops him for his four hours pushing trolleys
he clips on his clip on tie

He is urinating
when his supervisor finds him
puts her head around the door
and says can he get her out of a bind
and work four hours Wednesday 8 until 12?
He says okay because now he can
She says he has really got her out of a bind

The end of school forever
was just yesterday
He wonders does she want him
to actually listen to OK COMPUTER
or what?

viii

He strips off damp clothes
gets in a cool shower
He drops her CD into the tray
hits play and Airbag barges in
He lies on the bed and the room
fades out

He dreams movement
wakes up slowly
OK COMPUTER is over
and there is someone in the room
on him or moving around
and he is sure it's her in there with him
they have fallen asleep listening
and her head is on his arm
and his arm has gone to sleep
but he he is out again before he can make sense of it
before he can get his head around her being on her holidays