Alfred Todd
Ray-who-nobody-sees
I'll call him that; it doesn't mean he isn't there.
But no one's seen him in an age. They've asked around;
tried other anglers; a pub he drank at, somewhere;
the places by the lake, where he was often found.
I still recall the things we talked about.
How the Falklands flashbacks had come again.
How, in the woods above the lake, sleeping out,
he found some solace, and didn't mind the rain.
Sometimes, in the forest, I'll take a different way,
find a makeshift shelter in a clearing,
and imagine that it might belong to Ray -
still there - but passed beyond our sight,
beyond our hearing.
But no one's seen him in an age. They've asked around;
tried other anglers; a pub he drank at, somewhere;
the places by the lake, where he was often found.
I still recall the things we talked about.
How the Falklands flashbacks had come again.
How, in the woods above the lake, sleeping out,
he found some solace, and didn't mind the rain.
Sometimes, in the forest, I'll take a different way,
find a makeshift shelter in a clearing,
and imagine that it might belong to Ray -
still there - but passed beyond our sight,
beyond our hearing.
Page(s) 6
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