Reinvention
I heard him say ‘Take all personal items
when leaving the train’. On the dank platform
I found my gaze had been dropped,
fallen between the sleepers at Fratton;
my breath, too, was lost, like my voice,
squashed between folded coats on the rack
as we lurched past Liphook and Liss;
my thoughts had leapt up and flown
out of the window to drape washing lines,
decorate hedgerows bare of leaves
between Rowlands Castle and Petersfield;
my sorrows were no longer filed
in order in my case, they had drowned
where the river slid over the weir;
while the signal at Woking glared red
my future had been thrown away, tangled
with the sandwich wrapping, shredded
to confuse wise readers of cards;
worse still, I had left my heart behind,
near the café on Portsmouth station,
it cracked when you turned your back.
Hollow, silent, all that remained
was to track myself down: there I was,
parked by the exit, weaving new words
from overheard threads, clothing my mind,
sighted once more, my core repaired,
finding hope in revolving destinations,
in well-oiled points guiding the way.
Page(s) 30
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