Liz Berry
Black Country
Commuters saw it first, vast
on the hillside by the A41,
a wingless Pegasus, hooves
kicking the road into the distance.
It faced East, towards the pits,
mouth parted as if it would
swallow the sun that rose
from behind the winding gear.
It had appeared over night.
A black shadow on the scrub,
galloping above the gates
of the derelict factories.
Word spread. Crowds gathered.
Kids, someone said,
but when they examined its flanks
they found pure coal,
coal where none had been mined
in years, where houses
still collapsed into empty shafts
and hills bore scars.
A gift from the underworld,
hauling the past
from the dead earth. Old men
knelt to breath the smoke
of its mane, whisper
in its ear, walked away
in silence, fists clenched,
faces streaked with tears.
Poems for this issue were selected by Katherine Gallagher
Page(s) 11
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