AN EVENING AT ARC

Wednesday 27/01/2010. Tonight I went to a spoken word event at ARC in Stockton curated by the local poet Mike Edwards, his "Invisible Man" was excellent but my favourite of the evening was "Mrs. Robinson's Dress" by the lovely Jo Colley (see picture). "Articulate" is the general title given to an ongoing series of events at ARC featuring various acts of multi-media performance, poetry and the spoken word providing a platform for writers and poets throughout the north east of England. Mike Edwards "curated" the performances and was no mean performer himself, though unfortunately a quick search has failed to reveal any of his work which if it has not yet been published certainly deserves a wider audience, a name to watch.

Mrs Robinson's Dress by Jo Collley

oyster moygashel, silk lined
in palest pink only a pearl
would dare to insert herself.

into that world. She projects
her lighthouse beam across
every dollared pageant

of Los Angeles. She's so tall
in her stilletos she can see
clear across the top of her husband's

balding head, his thick specs
level with her cone-shaped breasts
she locks double lashed eyes

with Benjamin, tender
as a new born rabbit
he is a snack a morsel

a between the courses treat
He's meat. He cannot speak
later, she throws the dress

into the trash, Her maid
retrieves it, gives it closet space
until her eldest son comes out.

His Mrs Robinson act, a revalation
from port to shining port
gains him access to

the captain's table
the first mates bed, until
he jumps ship at Shields

shreds the dress
his loss, my gain
so here's to you Mrs Robinson.

The inspiration for this poem ocurred when the author discovered an expensive American designer label dress in a charity shop in Recar and got to wondering what story lay behind it washing up in Redcar. It's why we need poets really!