Alternatives
i
Mist over Temple Meads;
a shoal undulates up steps,
along platforms like winds
that cause noses to drip.
Luminous jacketed men repairing fences
by the track as carriages vibrate
past sloping allotments
and the backs of rundown terraces.
A crane arm swings, drops
pallets to builders on girder frames;
passengers heads bob at laptops,
passing the choreography of a soccer game.
Red faces, alert as meerkats,
seek connections; the airport coach
stops and starts at city lights,
silent curses form at the driver’s mouth.
ii
Dude in a tossed back trilby
skintight black jeans
and a multicoloured sash
struts through Departures
wheeling his travel case.
Businesswomen at Starbucks,
laptop plugged in, taking turns
emailing the office
or sipping cappuccino
as staff press levers,
machinery froths milk.
iii
Aircrew demonstrate
safety procedures
as exhausted travellers
bow heads to read about
the latest celebrity tragedy,
avoid articles on crashes,
slump against portholes,
engrossed in iPod movies,
eyeing toddlers that remind them
of their own.
Page(s) 4
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