THE AMAZING TINTIN
for Cathy Martin
sucks ice cubes at a bar, gazes out to sea.
Tintin without Haddock who he left
with a question mark hanging beside his beard.
Tintin in his blue sweater, who wants to help
sad skinheads but gets asked to the sauna.
Snowy’s run away. The boy’s forgotten
how Calculus wandered off. He’s growing
stubble and his wet hair won’t lift
for the next frame. Where are
the frames anyway? Where, when people collide,
are the coloured stars, the ragged
RRRING of the telephone?
He spits ice in the glass. He can smell
adventures out there: smugglers doubling
as drag queens, treasure under the old pier
but he’s stopped too long. He’s lost
the maps and tonight for one last time Haddock,
cranky, devoted Haddock, will drink
himself to sleep aboard his ship.