Going Back
Never have a dog, especially not one of those grizzled, rough-
haired, sturdy, always-game terriers with overhanging tufts
of eyebrows which swivel as his eyes follow your every movement
while you check what to take back from rooms which look
different
even before you pack; which he picks up along with his ball
which he drops on top of your pile of folded uniform, all
with name tapes in italics which you chose and are dying to swank
about until you think where you’ll not be when you unpack
the trunk
he went frenzied at the sight of, paroxysrns of sniffing as though
he’d been stung; but now he’s subsided, chin on paws, he knows
there’ll be no walk, and his stump of a tail barely moves
as you stroke him too often in passing, wishing you could shove
him inside your pyjama case to be with you at night, to cuddle
instead of your teddy who hasn’t his smell of old puddles;
and suddenly you can’t bear it, his quivering - so you kick
him, as your mother comes in with your freshly pressed tunic
and cries Oh, poor little Nick, you know how he hates you going!
then she stumbles over him too, just not looking what she’s doing.
Page(s) 22
magazine list
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- 14
- Acumen
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- Ambit
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- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
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- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
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- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The