Janina Aza Karpinska
Gilt-patterned glasses filled with amber-coloured tea, no milk,
too much sugar; a coming together of young men in a ring
cross-legged on the floor, shelves crammed with radio parts,
tools, things needed for work. I'm unexpected but welcome,
the stray in their midst, found by one returning from his stint
of National Service, on a late-night train the evening before;
witness a display of prowess - a knife-throwing trick -
after every glass empties, taking turns to aim and toss
the blade towards its vacant mouth - mostly falling aside
and derided, or shattering glass, causing much laughter
until, at last, the knife's swallowed whole / standing proud
to cheers and applause, before they go back to their job.
