The Man in the Next Bed
Your fingers move,
You perform careful, elaborate tasks.
It looks like knitting
or sewing,
but your hands contain no wool
or thread,
no needles.
Your eyes are closed;
Your fingers are remembering...
You sewed the shroud
For your own dead child.
Your hands sewed,
Your heart bled.
You fitted the wires
To nuclear warheads.
Your hands worked,
Your mind tried to be empty.
You prepared sophisticated poisons
For your enemies,
Wearing thin surgical gloves
To keep your skin pristine.
All of these you did
or did not.
None will know now,
For you are lost in yourself
And your hands are not telling.
You perform careful, elaborate tasks.
It looks like knitting
or sewing,
but your hands contain no wool
or thread,
no needles.
Your eyes are closed;
Your fingers are remembering...
You sewed the shroud
For your own dead child.
Your hands sewed,
Your heart bled.
You fitted the wires
To nuclear warheads.
Your hands worked,
Your mind tried to be empty.
You prepared sophisticated poisons
For your enemies,
Wearing thin surgical gloves
To keep your skin pristine.
All of these you did
or did not.
None will know now,
For you are lost in yourself
And your hands are not telling.
Page(s) 16
magazine list
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- 14
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- Ambit
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
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- 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