Page 10 - Contrast1977Aprilv20n2

THEATRE POEM IV

The h~ir was styled never to bother
Efficient hands
Efficient in every task they met
Counting out change to blue haired ladies
And their gray faced husbands.
Hold tr"oseats for the Dean this evening
Wrapped in a careful sandstone smile.
Making tiny entries in big books at night
Pulling on, in the morning, her medicinal hosiery
And tying twice her sensible shoes.
Her husband once taught drama at the college
For a few years before and after he died.
Martha Adams - Queen of the box office
Well - not quite Queen -
Keeper, perhaps
Yet more than that for it was her castle
A castle ~dth one window spotlessly clean.
But one dark day
Walking past the royal cage
I saw her kneeling on the floor
Her temple pressed against the safe-
The first time I had seen her cry.
Thinking her tears could soften steel
And bleach the yellow calendar white
White as her mother
And the covers on her pillows
White as her fat~~r's Sunday suit and
The dove her brother killed and made her cry
But I had no pillows for Martha Adams,
And nothing White about me
So I walked away having played no part
In the black comedy of this one day.
We never had cause for further concern;
She gave us no trouble after that
Though she was told now and then
To clean the window
And several times to straighten her hair.

- Max Dixon