Jerry
David Gilbert (Australian National University, Australia)
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Fearing reprisals
Jerry wore odd socks.
‘Indulge my ritual’ he’d say
and I’d mess up his sock drawer
so he could never find a pair.
Jerry was a tiger
with fading skin
like being in a low budget zoo
in my closet.
When he was ready
with his odd socks
we would enter the day
to make a living.
I would sit at a desk
with a window and computer
typing in the shade.
Jerry was a hustler
and would stand by the village
of underground toilets
and speak through his eyes
at the pedestrians
who were too busy.
But sometimes they would answer
with their eyes
and enter his subterranean world
beneath the traffic
without a word.
From my desk
I could see the cubicle door close
and two figures and paws
and Jerry’s odd socks
as he ate through the afternoon.
.
.
David Gilbert is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political and Social Change, College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. His PhD is on trans modes of belonging in Yangon, Myanmar. One of his interests is the connections between ethnography and creative writing. He has previously published poetry in Voiceworks.
