Geoff Stevens
Bob Martin
The past is a dog
which you drag around behind you
on a lead
sometimes it growls
occasionally it bites
but mostly it is not necessary
for it to do a thing.
Imagine a bloke six feet tall
with a dog that stands thirty feet
and you’ll understand why.
Somewhere at the bottom of your mind
is a floor painting
of you and the dog
in ochre
on the dark brown alluvium
of a delta of split decisions.
Take a look at it
and answers will bite your head off.
A dog owner all this time
and you hadn’t noticed
that the past had outgrown its kennel.
which you drag around behind you
on a lead
sometimes it growls
occasionally it bites
but mostly it is not necessary
for it to do a thing.
Imagine a bloke six feet tall
with a dog that stands thirty feet
and you’ll understand why.
Somewhere at the bottom of your mind
is a floor painting
of you and the dog
in ochre
on the dark brown alluvium
of a delta of split decisions.
Take a look at it
and answers will bite your head off.
A dog owner all this time
and you hadn’t noticed
that the past had outgrown its kennel.
Geoff Stevens has edited Purple Patch for 27 years. His latest collection, Phrenology of Anaglypta, is published by Blue Chrome in December 2003.
Page(s) 60
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