Martin Gray
Blues for Bird XIV
Charlie had two friends:
an armless beggar man
(no one knew his name)
who worked in vaudeville once
and learnt to use his toes
to deal a hand at cards
and sort coins, roll the dice
and Old Man Virgil who
was owner of a shack
and gleaned the streets for junk,
both men substitutes
for the father Charlie lacked,
his dad never home,
at last dead in a fight
left bloodless, razor-slashed.
The look on his coffined corpse
obsessed Bird all his life.
an armless beggar man
(no one knew his name)
who worked in vaudeville once
and learnt to use his toes
to deal a hand at cards
and sort coins, roll the dice
and Old Man Virgil who
was owner of a shack
and gleaned the streets for junk,
both men substitutes
for the father Charlie lacked,
his dad never home,
at last dead in a fight
left bloodless, razor-slashed.
The look on his coffined corpse
obsessed Bird all his life.
Poems from Blues for Bird by Martin Gray.
Reproduced by kind permission of Santa Monica Press.
Book contains some excellent complementary drawings by Paul Jung
Page(s) 55
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