Graham Clifford
Not even my Father
At 1:30 in the morning
he takes me away from the others unpacking.
He opens the front door to the first night
in our first home and squirts
WD-40 right in to the lock's iris,
explains it stands for water dispersal,
NASA concocted it to keep fields of waiting rockets,
sore with priapism,
from turning auburn, then burnt umber.
He will have heard this on his pocket radio
cycling back along blustery North London roads
that cut between the reservoirs
buffeted by daydreams of curly microwaves and long AM waves
and walloped by the force
of massive fucking Sunblest juggernauts passing
that don't recognise bike lanes, or care
on stretches where street lights don't work.
He takes my key and lubricates it
with another quick squirt of the clear oil
and slips it still wet into the lock
to revitalise the inner gubbins -
he knows all the proper names.
When I turn my back to come upstairs
he takes the squeak from the gate.
This kind man.
Not even my father.
he takes me away from the others unpacking.
He opens the front door to the first night
in our first home and squirts
WD-40 right in to the lock's iris,
explains it stands for water dispersal,
NASA concocted it to keep fields of waiting rockets,
sore with priapism,
from turning auburn, then burnt umber.
He will have heard this on his pocket radio
cycling back along blustery North London roads
that cut between the reservoirs
buffeted by daydreams of curly microwaves and long AM waves
and walloped by the force
of massive fucking Sunblest juggernauts passing
that don't recognise bike lanes, or care
on stretches where street lights don't work.
He takes my key and lubricates it
with another quick squirt of the clear oil
and slips it still wet into the lock
to revitalise the inner gubbins -
he knows all the proper names.
When I turn my back to come upstairs
he takes the squeak from the gate.
This kind man.
Not even my father.
Graham Clifford is a graduate of the UEA creative writing MA. In 2002 Graham was commended in the Arvon/Telegraph Poetry Competition. In 2003 he won the Writers-inc bursary prize. He
works as a primary school teacher in Newham, London. You can find some of his poems at
www.poetrymagazines.org.uk
works as a primary school teacher in Newham, London. You can find some of his poems at
www.poetrymagazines.org.uk
Page(s) 81
magazine list
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
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- Dream Catcher
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- 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