Pottery Classes

A poem from 1986

I saw the clay before me

spinning round and round

but she didn’t get dizzy

I splashed water upon her

gently

and with my fingers

I moulded her soft body

into a multitude of designs

when I had finished I sat back

and admired her beauty

her very being there worshipped me

and I saw that it was good

upon her earthy surface

I drew a man and a woman

sitting in the shade of a giant appletree

I had been working for an hour

and so I went to make

a cup of coffee

ten minutes later I returned

and noticed that my creation

was gone

in her place was a serpent

laughing at me

so I picked it up

by the tail

and cursed it

and threw it out of the window

I immediately installed

an electric burglar alarm

to make sure that it wouldn’t come back