Andrew Dilger
Prayer to the Fates
Spin me the yarn,
you cloth-
head. Let sister ready the shears.
What threadbare inches of grey twill
measure out the years? The end,
when it comes, will be grisly
or dull, weekday or weekend,
at home or abroad. Three score
and ten is ample, these days,
for the horsing around, getting up late,
second-rate social events.
Half the time will be spent half-awake;
the other half lived
in delirium tremens,
wall-to-wall fear of what we desire:
a fine piece of ass, or pile
in suburbia, working that little bit less.
We all want to go in our sleep, with our friends
and grandchildren
ranged around us like dolls,
wringing their mitts
at the thought of us gone. IF ONLY it’s painless
we’d have gone already, milking the last
of their comfort and crying:
I loved you all always forever
but often was sick to the molars
of your plaints and tears.
Myself, I was yellow,
possibly hurtful, did nothing
to add to the weal of mankind.
you cloth-
head. Let sister ready the shears.
What threadbare inches of grey twill
measure out the years? The end,
when it comes, will be grisly
or dull, weekday or weekend,
at home or abroad. Three score
and ten is ample, these days,
for the horsing around, getting up late,
second-rate social events.
Half the time will be spent half-awake;
the other half lived
in delirium tremens,
wall-to-wall fear of what we desire:
a fine piece of ass, or pile
in suburbia, working that little bit less.
We all want to go in our sleep, with our friends
and grandchildren
ranged around us like dolls,
wringing their mitts
at the thought of us gone. IF ONLY it’s painless
we’d have gone already, milking the last
of their comfort and crying:
I loved you all always forever
but often was sick to the molars
of your plaints and tears.
Myself, I was yellow,
possibly hurtful, did nothing
to add to the weal of mankind.
Andrew Dilger’s poems have appeared in various magazines including The Devil, Samizdat, Smiths Knoll, Staple, and Verse. He lives in Oxford.
Page(s) 72
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