Death’s Door
Regardless of other appointments, he would
as indeed he should,
seek you out and arrive at your door,
though, in the end, what’s more
likely is you will find yourself cold-calling at his,
the same one of bones and brass
you glimpsed in some such mid-town dereliction.
So, regardless of the affliction,
you will be gently ushered to the yard behind
where, believe me, you’re going to find
stacked the healthy loss and regret of the living…
But back to his door, that door, and forgiving
the obvious, God, for now it seems like a question
to be answered with a question,
because you don’t actually pass through
anything – no, not this time, that would never do –
no, this time it will be seen to pass through you,
the final dream becoming reality behind you.
Howard Wright teaches Art History at the University of Ulster in Belfast. He was the Showcase poet in Magma 29.
magazine list
- Features
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- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
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- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
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- Magma
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- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
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- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
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- Orbis
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- 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