Gary Allen
Fusion
This house sleeps in the sun
a quiet afternoon
the yellow curtain fluttering at the door –
listen Lord for I am alone
as if the mind has become the universe:
I am eight years old and hear everything
the milk curdling in their saucepans of water
the dog panting under the kitchen table
the sigh of clothes dropping to the floor
in the little shady room above.
Jesus is my family
looking down from the wall
judging a greater sin than is mine
forty years in a distant future.
And the breadman is in the street –
the great wooden box of a radio
talks of stars burning out
as everything meets to a centre –
my hand full of coin
the bitter leaves on the Lime trees
his face stilled above hers
the deafening roar of gelignite
outside the garage – then dust.
a quiet afternoon
the yellow curtain fluttering at the door –
listen Lord for I am alone
as if the mind has become the universe:
I am eight years old and hear everything
the milk curdling in their saucepans of water
the dog panting under the kitchen table
the sigh of clothes dropping to the floor
in the little shady room above.
Jesus is my family
looking down from the wall
judging a greater sin than is mine
forty years in a distant future.
And the breadman is in the street –
the great wooden box of a radio
talks of stars burning out
as everything meets to a centre –
my hand full of coin
the bitter leaves on the Lime trees
his face stilled above hers
the deafening roar of gelignite
outside the garage – then dust.
Gary Allen was born in Ballymena, Co Antrim. He has published three full length collections – Languages Flambard / Black Mountain 2002), Exile (Black Mountain 2004) and North of Nowhere (Lagan Press 2005) – and a novel Cillin (Black Mountain 2005).
Page(s) 45
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