How I Get Ready

By Ashleigh Young

In her new poetry collection How I Get Ready, Ashleigh Young fails to learn to drive, vanishes from the fossil record, and finally finishes writing a book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Victoria University Press
• Release date: May 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781776563258

Book preview

NOTES

The Spring

One day last week while going to work

I saw a horse lying on the street

and people were trying to help it up.

It came to my mind that I must know

how and when they were going to get that horse up.

I saw that it was hard for them

to get the horse up and I wished they would get it up quick

as I was in a hurry to go to work.

Some people that I know came and greeted me

but I did not pay attention to their greetings

because I had the horse on my mind.

Whenever a wagon comes by

I start to run after the wagon until I can

make sure of the colour

of the horses.

I must know.

I test my heart—take out my watch

I    think the cause of heart failure

is if I did any-

thing like running hard, if I ran too much;

sometimes I     can’t do anything

without anything in my hand;

whenever I

sit idle I don’t know why but I do it

I take this pencil and hold it in my hand

write something . . . In the middle of my work

I get down to play with the dog.

When I am at home, alone with

my mother    I start touching my mother’s shoes.

She    takes the broom and

slams it across my hands.

Some people asked me what I was standing there for

and I gave them all kinds of answers.

I made out that I was brushing

my clothes or looking for something in my pocket.

I could not go away because I was afraid

that if I did go away the horse

would come upon my mind

and I would have to come back and make sure

the horse was standing.

I am worse in the summer

than I am in the winter. I get wild

in the summer.

I used to have    thoughts of touching things

but that is not so much

in my mind now.

Now it is things I     want to know.

I did not want to take any chances

so I stood there until

they got the horse up. By that time it was too late

to go to work, so I stood there

until they got everything fixed up

and the horse was drinking from a pail of water.

In a field I saw a stick

so I dragged it out from the mud and

brought it home; when I got it home I was satisfied

After that I did not care what

became of it. Then I saw some hay on a wagon

and had to run and get some of it.

When this satisfied me I immediately wanted something else.

When I am satisfied with one thing

I want something else.

I think the cause of my badness is

I get sore    when things are not just

as I want them

and    perhaps I’ll cry out, ‘Some breakfast!’

or I’ll say to myself, ‘Let’s tease her’

and I’ll think of things she    doesn’t like to have

done to her

then I’ll feel    sorry I did it; I lose my temper and won’t

think to control it, but I    don’t want

to give in.

After I was satisfied that the horse was standing

and revived by its drinking

something else came to my mind