The Other Boy
I was the other boy. All my life
I've had to live with that.
My mother kept the cuttings.
'Commended for bravery'
the coroner said, his voice deep,
like in a war movie. He couldn't know
how much more frightening
it would be to relive it. Sometimes
at night a boy's hand clutches my shirt
and, struggling to wake, I watch his face,
his fingers letting go, his head bobbing,
bobbing round that bend and then, silence.
I can replay it in slow-motion
just as it was; the boys in uniform shouting,
running, tripping in their army boots.
And me still hanging on the rope,
making my way, monkey fashion
to the outstretched hands.
I've had to live with that.
My mother kept the cuttings.
'Commended for bravery'
the coroner said, his voice deep,
like in a war movie. He couldn't know
how much more frightening
it would be to relive it. Sometimes
at night a boy's hand clutches my shirt
and, struggling to wake, I watch his face,
his fingers letting go, his head bobbing,
bobbing round that bend and then, silence.
I can replay it in slow-motion
just as it was; the boys in uniform shouting,
running, tripping in their army boots.
And me still hanging on the rope,
making my way, monkey fashion
to the outstretched hands.
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