John Lindley
Homecoming - Elmer's Last Ride
Elmer has his ticket
and if his dry bone hands can't hold it
his thin-lipped mouth can.
And it's a ticket home
to a home of sorts.
It's torn tongue tells tales
of Sonney's, of recognition,
of reclamation and rest.
And he's balsa wood light
when they take him,
red as a beet, to Guthrie.
And he's lowered into a company of thieves
and they'd know him anywhere,
dressed for the occasion
in his last life's skin
and this morning's new hair.
and if his dry bone hands can't hold it
his thin-lipped mouth can.
And it's a ticket home
to a home of sorts.
It's torn tongue tells tales
of Sonney's, of recognition,
of reclamation and rest.
And he's balsa wood light
when they take him,
red as a beet, to Guthrie.
And he's lowered into a company of thieves
and they'd know him anywhere,
dressed for the occasion
in his last life's skin
and this morning's new hair.
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