Mr Brian

 

According to him 

there were only three forces -

push, pull, and as I 

put my hand up and told him -

twist. I was sure 

there was a fourth one - bend,

but I was too shy to say that. 

He knew the art department

would disagree with him 

about the third primary colour

being green and not yellow, 

but about the colours 

of the rainbow, or the spectrum, 

he was sure there were only six. 

Indigo he couldn’t see.

 

The next topic, after 

we’d finished electricity

was simply ‘Moving on’. 

He once made a joke

about an encounter 

with his head and Blossom Street

when he came off his bike. 

He couldn’t have guessed

that twenty years later 

another encounter with his head 

and Cranbrook Road would kill him,

but if he’d been asked 

how he would like to die

I think he may have said

doing what he loved. Cycling.