Linda Chase
Hand Writing
On roof tops, in cafes, hotel rooms.
I can’t withdraw any more.
The ceaseless yapping of wild dogs,
the clanging of metal rickshaw bells,
and the banter of street-side trading
assault me although I try to retreat.
Even my eyes are exhausted.
Colour, dust and sun make them squint.
A beggar jostles my elbow and changes
shapes of the words I write.
I have joined the rampage in the street
and given up what I thought was best;
time and space and objectivity.
Riff-raff poems are nipping at my ankles
as I try to buckle them onto my sandal.
If I had a computer to hide behind
I’d take it into battle like a tank.
My fingers would land on the chunky keys
and I’d pound out the words to the printer
in a volley of sure-shot, rapid-fire poems.
But my hand is giddy in a spin of squiggles,
unaccustomed to holding a pen
or touching such delicate paper.
It is unruled and as the pages turn over
I feel them tearing a little as they do.
Page(s) 92
magazine list
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
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- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
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- 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
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- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- 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