You, Me and the Bookcase
The back seat of a car wasn’t ever
big enough – the boot had to be left
open to bring home our book case.
Fitting corners through doorways,
allowed us to feel the grain, the scent
of polish rushing to our heads. Out of the rings
left by two glasses, and what we surmised
a bottle of burgundy, we invented a story
about a couple like us, who at weekends scoured
shops for texts about the world. Atlases,
dictionaries, photo-albums, and the collected
works of philosophers now share the shelves.
We’ve devised an order of sorts,
and positioned spines so sometimes
we lie horizontal alongside the titles.
Although we haven’t filled all the gaps,
we’re learning it’s not just touch
and visual pleasure, but finding the words.
Sally Flint is a published writer of poetry and prose and co-editor of the short story journal, Riptide. Her doctoral research at the University of Exeter involves examining ekphrasis in contemporary poetics and education. Most recently she was a runner up in the Bridport Poetry Prize 2008.
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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