Opportunities

If the Pet Shop Boy's Opportunities is a satire on Thatcherism why does it have such a beautiful tune? It turned up last night  on Andrew Marr's documentary about the Thatcher years and it sounded like a threnody for lost youth.

I've got the brains, you've got the looks
Lets make lots of money.

Me nostalgic for all that? Give us a break. I hated Thatcher.

But 1986 was sort of a special year for me. A crazy year. I dropped out of the church, fell in love a couple of times, had lots of sex. 

The wheel was in spin.

And it's like Marr says; those were revolutionary times. Thatcher had stomped on all the old institutions- the City, the Unions. Willy-nilly, she gave us freedoms.  

I had a girlfriend who was a painter. I had this idea I was going to be her agent. She said she'd let me. In the three months we were together I made phone calls, talked to people, booked her exhibitions. 

I've never been so go-getting before or since. 

But she- ahem- slipped out from under me. And my career as an entrepreneur went with her. No red braces. No cell phone the size of a brick.

But just for a moment- just for a moment- I could have had it all...

Rien ne va plus.

And While I'm Thinking About The 80s

SPRING SONG

 

Easily spooked, she thought she heard

A baby scream.  And since there wasn’t

A baby near, she thought that it must be

The ghost of a baby.

 

                             I’ll  bet it was cats.

Their voices when they’re looking for sex

Are ghastly.

 

                   There’s our tom cat now.

He’s sliding across  the pitch of a roof

Like a skiff enjoying enormous waves.

 

Early spring and the leaves are little.

 

I went down into the caves with her,

The water icy in spite of our wet suits,

Thinking about the hour I’d spent

With my tongue in her vulva.

 

                                                Mercy, mercy,

The screechy voices, the little leaves.