Kim's Game at Some Remove

Cherry

By Ewan

Thu, 22 Feb 2018
  • 3399 reads
11 comments
 

A G-plan coffee table so low you couldn’t sit on the
         married quarters armchairs except on the edge
             or the teapot would be too far away.
                                             

        Next to the cups - in flat muddy green, standing
             on contrasting white speckled saucers -
                 there are other time-tricked memories.

           A spatchcocked paperback, Zane Grey
                or Dennis Wheatley, racy covers
                   with lurid fonts, next to a Sunday Post.  
              

                       A school report crumpled from a back pocket,
                              careful smoothing of the paper has
                                   smeared the As into Bs.

                           Cigarette packets, one of those whirry ashtrays
                               that you pressed down on a knob to open,
                                 a Ronson lighter and Mum’s Colibri.

A Black and White TV, off, nobody watched
    that sinister girl and the blackboard.
        Radio on. Waggoners’ Walk – No Archers here.

                Afternoon tea, if “someone” visited,
                not Peggy Hamilton who came round
                        to smoke and show the bruises.

                        No beer cans, whisky tumblers, long drinks,
                            not in the house, not then. Besides
                                what happened in the Mess….

The same furniture in different houses,
  in different countries, in different times,
     ‘til the different memories are the same.                                                            
                           

Certificate U
Poem
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by celticman on

is that concrete poetry? that looks like what it writes about. That's something new to me. It's a bit of a mess the mess, but memories solidify around the banal, I guess. 

 

Submitted by Ewan on

down the page. A bit like the lane that is memory does.

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Submitted by Pat G on

Textured fuss, it was. You've captured it.

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

I love the idea of making a poem from Kim's Game (I don't think we called it that, but can't remember what we did call it) - in fact, I like it so much,  if you don't mind, I'm going to nick the idea for the Inspiration Point!

 

Submitted by Ewan on

I know it as Kim's Game because it's a test undergone by the eponymous Kipling character to test his suitability for the Great Game... "Kim's Game" is beloved of Cubs, Brownies, Guides and Scouts the world over. I lasted no time at all in the Cubs, "I have compliance issues" too.

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Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

haha - I was asked to leave guides, but at least I managed to stay the course at brownies! I was about to ask if you minded me borrowing your idea, but will take the absence of a complaint as a yes. Let me know if I'm wrong and I'll change it

 

Submitted by Ewan on

Go ahead...

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Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

thanks - didn't notice! (I never read the titles)

 

Submitted by Ewan on

that people don't, that's why I use them! (And the summaries on the front page) laugh

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Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

I remember Kim's game as a childrens' party game, I knew it as 'Memory.' Miscellaneous objects on a tray, then cover them with a tea towel and list what you remember. Your poem reads like a great memory snapshot.

(My favourite party game was 'Stations' Mum's friend Jane Garland gave big parties. We all had the name of a London Station and had to change chairs or be stuck in the middle and grab a chair next time eg 'Paddington change with Waterloo' And sometimes she would shout 'All Change' and we all had a mad scramble!)

Submitted by Ewan on

"Kim, a teenager being trained in secret as a spy, spends a month in Simla, British India at the home of Mr. Lurgan, who ostensibly runs a jewel shop but in truth is engaged in espionage for the British against the Russians. Lurgan brings out a copper tray and tosses a handful of jewels onto it; his boy servant explains to Kim:

'Look on them as long as thou wilt, stranger. Count and, if need be, handle. One look is enough for me. When thou hast counted and handled and art sure that thou canst remember them all, I cover them with this paper, and thou must tell over the tally to Lurgan Sahib. I will write mine.'

They contest the game many times, sometimes with jewels, sometimes with odd objects, and sometimes with photographs of people. It is considered a vital part of training in observation; Lurgan says:

'[Do] it many times over till it is done perfectly - for it is worth doing.'"

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