Water
The corrugated tank behind our coalhouse
held rain, yellowy-green,
too thick to play with.
In the upstairs bathroom
it was thin, watered down,
tamed by the white tiles.
A mile from home
it was summoned by three pulls
on the handle of Nanny’s kitchen pump.
Old-fashioned my mother said
but I wanted a spout sighing,
breathing rain on rock,
not metal too stiff to turn.
Unmodernised, thunder rumbled below;
sometimes you caught sounds of caverns
until crystal suddenly leapt and spat
in the stone sink and vanished
with a suck like rude boys.
If I caught it
the glass was dotted with bubbles
and you could taste iron
for half an hour.
Page(s) 20
magazine list
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- Lamport Court
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- North, The
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- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
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- Poetry London (1951)
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- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- Second Aeon
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- Shearsman
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- Staple
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