Eva Jackson: 0047

Opinion

When you said ‘all opinions are shit’
Did you mean that the radical contingency of beliefs positions and attitudes
Confounds us and confounds you,
Even as you, like me, hold to your shrill indignation?
Or did you just mean all opinions are shit?
When you said you were very interested in hunter gatherers
And that you would therefore like to know more about the Zulu,
Did you cavil at my cackle? It was very funny. You were so confident
In your lack of knowledge; I recognised a fellow bullshitter.
When we rode on a bike between beaches
And saw tiny huge elephants trained to walk in a line
And your shirt became my whole world
And you eventually on one street corner put your forearm calmly on my leg
And a little while later held my hand for a moment
And then jokingly said, in perfect time, that you were just doing that to clean your hand,
Did you know your pronouncements were clever and foolish and disarming?
Back in town after the holiday
I looked up clothed in black
To find you walking towards me and you saw my sadness.
Just for the record, when my mother met my father
He said ‘life is a shit sandwich’
And after that, like most people, she couldn’t forget him.
Did you know he was joking, did you know he was quite, quite
Serious?