John West
Girl Enters After Knocking Once
Stop there
do not pass the spot
where your vision will slide like a snake
across the top of the angled wall
between our entrance hall and lounge
to settle upon the mattress on the floor
do not discover that our lives are imprecise
are not going according to plan
are a bit of a mess, untidy
ragged, like a quilt tossed back
and a clawed on dressing gown:
you know Pat well enough
to walk in after just one rap
but not so well to understand
that we sleep apart
and so I keep clutching at my clothes
as I Tommy gun my words
At the hair dresser’s -
I think - we’re going shopping -
later - you could try
her mobile - it’s my day off
I was lying in - aah, relaxing, here
attempting to keep you at bay.
Page(s) 28
magazine list
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
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- Lamport Court
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- Magma
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- Matter
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- Monkey Kettle
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- North, The
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- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
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- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
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- 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