Nima At Dinner 1967 Poem by Terry Collett

I sat at the dining table.

I didn't want
to go down
from my room
but my parents
insisted.

Don't talk
about being
in hospital
or about
your drug addiction
Mother said to me
before she went down
from my room.

I sat in between
the thin lady
who looked
like Virginia Woolf
and the fat man
who had a moustache
like Oliver Hardy.

I sat mute
looking at them
as I ate
Mother eyeing me
in case I sang
like a canary
about my time
in hospital
for drug addiction.

The talk
was above my head
mostly medical stuff
or politics.

My father eyed me
now and then
in case I broke out
and gave
the game away.

Another guest
was an MP
who gazed at me
and smiled.

I didn't catch his name
but he eyed me over
but never spoke to me.

The Virginia Woolf lookalike
asked me what I was doing?

I said
eating dinner.

Mother chided me
for being rude
the lady said
not to worry
she understood
teenage girls.

I thought of Benny
how he'd be treated
amongst this snobbish lot
with their airs and graces.

I felt like spitting
in their food
and slapping
all their faces.