Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

1
Such an unlikely couple
their shopping trips ripped a hole
in the fabric of the smalltown day.
Those who chatted on the narrow streets
or swayed with the weight of bags
stopped to stare
but the couple went on their way
leaving the cobbles to be littered
 with speculation and muttered judgement.

2
If his life were a film
the audience would strain at watches
try to straighten cramped legs,
yawn at so many stabs at love
and shots at posterity,
against a confusion of backdrops
from city canyons to the Mediterranean,
all crumbling like rot-infested wood.

He lives now like an old hound,
his vision framed by rolling fog,
leaving his house only when he has to
on awkward arthritic legs,
strength sustained by the yellow capsules
on repeating prescription from the surgery.

3
She didn’t know why she was stung
at the thought of boys exploring her
with eager fingers, why she raced through
 the woods that time, her lungs snatching air,
brambles plucking at her partly-unfastened clothes,
leaving the boy staring at the naked roots
of the oak-tree, considering whether
to pursue and comfort, his hands still tracing
the shape she had willingly made.

The reason teased at memory’s edge.
Teetering on sleep, she saw shadows
melt from walls, congeal into a man
and she could almost feel a sweat-damp hand
block her breathing, feel a soreness
infecting her, leaving her raw, chafed
like a field after the harvesters.

4
A second-hand bookstore:
he passing, staring
at the door with dim regret
at his disappearing vision;
she leaving, too absorbed
in the books she’s bought
to notice him hovering
like an ex-husband
at his wife’s next marriage.

He struggles up from their collision,
painfully bends to help her
rescue the dropped volumes:
Rilke, Sexton, Berryman.
He squints at titles
which prompt a deeper recognition.

5
They gently touch
around each other’s scars:
hers, fresh, madly itching;
his, faded into his features.
He wants only to winter away
with a little warmth, some conversation.
She wants to breathe
in his lack of expectation.
It suits them both.