I’m reading books about reading this month (OMG so meta, so fun) & an element repeatedly brought up is not wanting to turn the light out on a book that’s thrilling you & sneak reading under covers. It affects readers across the spectrum. So I thought I’d attempt a poem exploring my experience of it — in a short lined conversational style similar to the YA verse novel I’m reading (Inside Out & Back Again by Vietnamese American poet Thanhha Lai). 

This then very quickly lead to an interesting Factoid about the other kind of torch you probably think of when you think torches & stories of the 76 Montreal Games Olympic flame going out & needing to be relit with a cigarette lighter of all things (haha). When I sought verification of this story from other sources, I came across a home grown torch story I’d never heard of. One that was even better.

*****

light’s (sorta) out

being an owlish teenager 
in a cock-a-doodle-do household
meant getting creative
to ensure the reading got done

i secretly saved pocket 
money for several weeks 
pretending i’d always spent 
slightly more than i had

so on one after-school shopping
spree i was able to procure
a small hand held torch
without mum observing 

unfortunately my maths
illiterate mind hadn’t 
factored batteries 
into the equation

but a fortnight or so
later i had the power
to continue the story
even after the official edict

light’s out always came too soon
however now i could resume 
adventures after a discreet
interval  either under covers or above

soon realised batteries don’t last 
long when used often  & so 
a rechargeable system was 
acquired in similar fashion

& sure — there were 
occasional altercations
between parent & progeny
shouting matches & such

about sleep  v  school yet  
the system was extremely 
efficient   & the illicit joy 
it delivered   immeasurable 

~

there are many fine things
to being an adult (& several 
that totally suck) — but leaving
lights on as long as i like.  wow.

LEDs will last forever   & so 
i drift asleep  book in hand, 
finger in page, glasses still on
dream for as long as needed

then   wake up   & resume 
from wherever i’d wafted off 
my teenage self & my flabbier
celled successor  both agree 

— this is living

*****

Day 14 Factoid – torches of all kinds

true Olympic spirit

in 56 : a future vet
presented a fake torch
— made of a chair leg 
painted silver : still wet 
a plum pudding can : 
& a pair of : burning 
jocks : soaked in kero —
to the mayor of Sydney
who proceeded : to speechify
while the protesting
prankster : slipped 
silkily : into the crowd
& away
             the following day
just before : taking an exam
his peers rose to their : feet 
applauding : their approval

the results of that test
are : less triumphant