Zimmerman

26/05/11

Zimmerman by Jim Aitken

Jim Aitken lives and works in Edinburgh, where he has been an English teacher for many years. His last collection of poems, Around the Time of Michael', published by SCND, came out at the end of 2010. This year he has had 3 poems featured in A Rose Loupt oot, an anthology of songs and poems on the famous UCS work-in of 40 years ago. He has also had a play performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006. Jim has been a member of Scottish PEN for a number of years.

Zimmerman

I caught a glimpse of him the other day,
painstakingly he progressed the pavement
as he always did around the same time.
I thought back to the Thracians from the north
who raced on horse-back into ancient Greece,
frightening the locals who ran away.
I bought a paper and made my way back
and saw him again pushing and shuffling,
man and contraption part of the one thing.
I fought against notions of sympathy;
of Hera placing him with the centaur:
keeping going made him legend enough.

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