Mohican
He’s on the left with the mohican.
It used to be red but he tired of the foreman
blowing kisses, clucking like a chicken
and whistling Little Red Rooster. The foreman
still waves coyly and whoops like an Indian
but better an Indian than a chicken.
The boss says he’s a nice enough lad
but some of the customers
won’t have him in the house
because he scares the children.
Now he has two of his own
and a haircut like his dad.
He drives a white Ford Sierra
and says what a state the world is in etc.
He doesn’t mind what
his daughters’ boyfriends look like
but he took a real dislike to one lad
not because he had long hair
but because he had long hair
as if he’d invented it.
She says Listen. I wouldn’t stick my legs
out like that, especially in those shorts,
if I were you, they’re not your best feature
End of August, he dismantles the boiler
and hoovers up the ants’ nest,
empties the hoover bag into the compost
and watches the survivors,
smothered in grey dust,
some with fluff on their backs,
scatter, regroup, move off
quickly, in no particular direction.
Page(s) 48-49
magazine list
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- Angel Exhaust
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
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- French Literary Review, The
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- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
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- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
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- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
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- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
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- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- Private Tutor
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- 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