Lyn Moir
Rope vendors, Silk Road
You want rope, lady, sir?
In this market, at this stall,
very fine ropes. You have donkey,
tie him to post? This rope here…
No? We have all kinds,
best quality, cotton, straw,
sisal, hemp, nylon also,
strong but without soul.
A good rope, she take
her character from maker,
all day marching up, down
rope walk. Long day in sun.
My father make these
before policemen take him.
They send him home
but he make rope no more.
He all day sit, stare at wall.
Little brother and I
comb fibres, mother spin,
father twist and turn.
Now mother sick.
You buy rope, sir, lady?
Best ropes here, for carry, tie,
for lift, for pull and tow,
for hang yourself…
Poems for this issue were selected by Penelope Shuttle
Page(s) 60
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- 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