Substitutions
Substitutions
Original Text
Jay Macpherson, Poems Twice Told: The Boatman & Welcoming Disaster (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1981): 68.
1Tedward was a
2Woolworth’s bear,
3Filling in for
4One not there
5(Parents’ attic?
6Thrown away?
7Long-dulled need re-
8vived one day):
9Lost the arche-
10typal ted,
11Friendly Tedward
12Did instead.
13Tedward, friend to
14-- Let’s say -- He,
15Came in tow to
16Visit Me:
17Quaint arrangement,
18I away
19When this pair ar-
20rived to stay.
21I, returning,
22Hoped to find,
23Briefly, Him: no --
24Left behind,
25Though, was Tedward
26In a chair,
27Filling in for
28Him not there.
29Tedward, whelmed with
30Spite and blame --
31Lo! My Tadwit
32He became:
33Nose though hard and
34Look though dim,
35Friendly substi-
36tute for Him.
37Is love haunted?
38To receive
39What another
40Needs to give
41Always, somewhat,
42Looked at square,
43Filling in for
44Those not there?
Publication Start Year
1974
Publication Notes
Welcoming Disaster (Toronto: Saannes, 1974).
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2009
Rhyme
Special Copyright
"Subtitutions" © Jay Macpherson. Printed gratis, and specifically for Representative Poetry Online, with permission of the author. As published in Poems Twice Told (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1981). Any other use, including reproduction for any purposes, educational or otherwise, will require explicit written permission from Jay Macpherson.