Still Life

by Robert Nisbet

Foreground, the pop lorry reached our street
on Tuesdays around tea time.
There were dandelion & burdock
and that hoosh of air and excitement
as the little cradle of wires
snapped back off the top of the bottle.

Deeper, a sunshine soaked the street
and we were safe in the centuries around us.


Author’s Note: I’ve just realized what a “British” poem this is. So to explain: in the 1950s and 60s, lemonade (usually called “pop”) was sold in Britain from lorries (trucks?) which drove around the houses. The bottles were sealed by quite neat little cradles of wires at their necks.