Estill Pollock
Thoughts on the Duration of Exile
[after Bertolt Brecht: Gedanken über die Dauer des Exils, c. 1937]
I
No pictures on the wall; why bother?
You'll be home soon. You live out of boxes,
renting by the day. Tomorrow,
that's when it will be, tomorrow.
The seedling that's rooted in the split
of concrete will never make a tree.
Anyway, watering trees is not your job.
You'll be packed and gone before then.
Don't meet people's eyes when they pass,
and that phrase book is dead weight
where you're going. When the letter arrives,
you'll know its meaning well enough.
You lie on the bed, staring at the ceiling's
dirty curlicues of paint peeling back. They fall
randomly, as the shadows of birds
among the tank traps, at the frontier
holding its breath.
II
So, you decided the coat
and picture need hanging after all.
The liberty pamphlets occupy your days.
Lately though, you've noticed
a drift in concentration the longer you're away.
Still, the leaflets keep you busy,
and outside in the yard, that chestnut tree
is tall enough for shade.
Page(s) 118-119
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