Eva Jackson: 0069

The Stables

My first job was to sell
Children’s books in a private hell
First dusting off the grains
Of the woodworms from the stable beams
Where the books were kept,
Then dragging out the metal table
With the change-box and the Anne Geddes bible
Which seemed out of place and massive.
I sat with book, impassive
And anxious listening to the strains
Of Britney Spears in the Stable lanes.
The song was about love that’s Toxic. She was
Out of tune with the rustic setting.
Every now and then a businessman
Would try to buy the Geddes tome
But haggle for a deal, not realising
I was not head of the enterprise, and
Could not offer him that joy.
I hung around in this employ
For several weeks, then quit. Perhaps
The little man who sold the ventilated hats
Rejoiced in that – it was he
Who told the boss I ignored the company
Of customers. But someone else,
I thought, should open the stall doors
For the invisible horses.