Random Stopping

It can be dangerous when the car in front

randomly stops – or comical when a teenager

- walking up the stairs – stops dead

in tracks because a bleeping text came in

and you say ‘Sorry’ as you crash her rucksack.

It’s weird, because a voice inside desires

that we ‘Keep trucking! Keep on keeping on!’

resists an awkward, random stop.

This energy’s the kind that Bannister

used in his first four minute mile – the kind

that every lover sometimes needs to find.

Random stopping never seems a good idea

- ever – definitely not on an escalator

or motorway and Philip Larkin

bluntly knew how many things we talk

about just never happen. He also said that

this one will.