Cliff Forshaw
Crusoe
very loosely after the Spanish of Tomás Segovia
Todo hombre sin mujer es un Crusoe.
Without a woman, this man’s a Crusoe,
shipwrecked by absence, decked by the gruesome
sham of drudgery: the unwinsome, lose some,
lose some more; the how-so? This whoso
dares spins out of control, barrelling bone
-white dunes. He hates the Eden between the waves,
sown with trans-ocean spores, broken wings, tail-fin. Alone,
a tattered palm for his flag, unwashed, unshaven. Not saved.
No big fat juicy fruit plopping off the trees.
No dog, umbrella, effing parrot, shady shack.
No Friday footprints, whisky, cheeky monkeys.
No Shakespeare, Bible, luxury item. No eight all-time killer tracks.
Strike out for sunwink, thrash surf, hit that swell’s blue rise.
Hope to crash up, beached: Tahiti, a coast of sandy thighs.
Page(s) 14
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