Robert Hamberger
Suicide bomber
Here is the height of my love.
It could kiss the clouds with fire
invade every blue mile,
and I will show them.
When I strap the damage to my waist
with slow attention
I think justice, honour.
Holy words in my head
roll pebbles round my tongue,
click against my teeth;
my body
a smoky flag unfurling.
I have watched women on their knees
throw dust on their headscarves,
punching their breasts.
I can achieve that grief for others.
When I walk at last among them
gently jostling shoulders,
see their eyes and how they look at me,
hear that woman singing to her child
I will make their language wail.
It could kiss the clouds with fire
invade every blue mile,
and I will show them.
When I strap the damage to my waist
with slow attention
I think justice, honour.
Holy words in my head
roll pebbles round my tongue,
click against my teeth;
my body
a smoky flag unfurling.
I have watched women on their knees
throw dust on their headscarves,
punching their breasts.
I can achieve that grief for others.
When I walk at last among them
gently jostling shoulders,
see their eyes and how they look at me,
hear that woman singing to her child
I will make their language wail.
Robert Hamberger has been awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship and shortlisted for a Forward Prize. He has published two collections: Warpaint Angel (Blackwater Press 1997) and The Smug Bridegroom (Five Leaves 2002) which was recently chosen for the small-press Alternative Generation promotion.
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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