THE LIFTMAN
HE littman is a black silk animal doomed in the well fetched to the first floor by bride and groom carrying fifty years in a suitcase, pain not yet unpacked, only love laid out clean without crinkles; some other time, some other time pain, love dry-cleaned will keep long, meanwhile let us ride in the lift to our carpeted hotel room, The liftman is a glove puppet, the glove is a bell with home in the liftman’s heart where many knock and the answer makes way for bridegroom and bride, wool-broker, jockey, the badminton crowd, all the twopence coloured and penny plain of people; and the liftman’s world is the worn-out startle of meeting and leaving, and the half-crown sneaked in the hand removed of feel. The liftman is answer always and question, the concealed bell inhabiting a shaft of mind, he is ourselves, the answer to summoning death, fancy and disguised dandy death with shuttlecock turf news and wedding ring who shall ride in the lift ride high in the lift to the top floor be wined and dined with sky-wind of snow-breath, then the bell Lied ¢he nadded tanésue etifled by our own black silken answet.
Janet
Frame
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Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540813.2.45
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 786, 13 August 1954, Page 22
Word count
Tapeke kupu
202THE LIFTMAN New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 786, 13 August 1954, Page 22
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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