Documentary

In the opening shot of the documentary
(filmed in black and white of course)
the two young women, ordinary
enough girls we're given to suppose,

are being looked down on as they wheel
a shopping trolley along a road.
We're being led to believe this is 'real
life.' But I think I've seen an ad

(for coffee? toothpaste? deodorant?)
which featured the one on the right. I'm
being distracted now and not confident
that this is going to be worth spending time

on. And when is it set? The sixties?
The early seventies? So my question is –
were shopping trolleys around back then?
I don't think so but am I mistaken?

And does it really matter about such details?
Is what's being shown/said the important thing?
But I'm someone who spends time noticing
if and how a poem rhymes and if it fails

to maintain a self-imposed rhyme scheme
or deliberately breaks free. See?
But this is true, I know it,
no one cares about that except the poet.

And you'd be right to think 'So what!'
And as for the documentary,
I've been so side-tracked
I've missed its parting shot.*


*Probably the trolley dumped in a side street.
Empty, except for one crumpled sheet
of paper with a poem scrawled on it.
Not a sonnet.