Cath Nichols
Train from Penn Station
Leaving Manhattan there are station stops with names
I can’t pronounce, and ones with hints of fantasy.
Mineola – a breakfast cereal bar. Syosset –
a soft, milk pudding; maybe served with pears.
Hicksville – a place I’d thought unreal: a sitcom
movie-town out in the sticks; sweet serenity
in the U, S of A. Then, Cold Spring Harbor –
a contradiction in my head: freshwater springs
and ocean harbours. Fresh and salt together,
an oxymoron. But sure enough, when my host
takes me for a drive across Long Island the water
pools right in and out, tracing such loops
of wonder. The lines that divide us are so thin.
I see an osprey perched on a post, waiting to fish.
I can’t pronounce, and ones with hints of fantasy.
Mineola – a breakfast cereal bar. Syosset –
a soft, milk pudding; maybe served with pears.
Hicksville – a place I’d thought unreal: a sitcom
movie-town out in the sticks; sweet serenity
in the U, S of A. Then, Cold Spring Harbor –
a contradiction in my head: freshwater springs
and ocean harbours. Fresh and salt together,
an oxymoron. But sure enough, when my host
takes me for a drive across Long Island the water
pools right in and out, tracing such loops
of wonder. The lines that divide us are so thin.
I see an osprey perched on a post, waiting to fish.
Cath Nichols’ publications are Tales of Boy Nancy, a pamphlet (Driftwood Publications 2005) and My Glamorous Assistant (Headland Press, 2007).
Page(s) 23
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