Allan Crosbie
'His thoughts gathered quickly'
His thoughts gathered quickly in the silence of Quaker
Meeting, melting like glass, then growing hard,
brittle, breakable. A woman stood and spoke
of ‘pain’ and ‘being tested’ and the pleading clichés
were hammers swung inside his head and thrown
with perfect aim at the crystal just about to form.
The moment that it shattered he realised to his horror
it wasn’t precious, but the shiny surface of a mirror
in which he saw behind him the accusing form
of his sister when once, as children on their own,
he’d tripped her and she’d fallen ... He glimpsed again the way
he’d watched her on the ground, the way she’d wept and choked,
silently, before she screamed, and the way he’d heard
himself hiss, as he punched her broken arm, You faker!
Meeting, melting like glass, then growing hard,
brittle, breakable. A woman stood and spoke
of ‘pain’ and ‘being tested’ and the pleading clichés
were hammers swung inside his head and thrown
with perfect aim at the crystal just about to form.
The moment that it shattered he realised to his horror
it wasn’t precious, but the shiny surface of a mirror
in which he saw behind him the accusing form
of his sister when once, as children on their own,
he’d tripped her and she’d fallen ... He glimpsed again the way
he’d watched her on the ground, the way she’d wept and choked,
silently, before she screamed, and the way he’d heard
himself hiss, as he punched her broken arm, You faker!
Page(s) 10
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