Helen Clare
Death in Sainsbury's
I would write her poem. But I can't
imagine the tape rewinding,
the flashes of lovers, children, bluebells.
I don't know whose voice she heard,
the last taste in her mouth.
And he had his poem -
about more than sitting on the chair
they provided, cap folded between knees
sipping sweet tea,
saying nothing.
I think a lot about her poem too -
the dark-haired girl,
in the line of assistants standing
arms to their sides like a fence of paper dolls,
tears running down and reddening her chin,
death snapping at her heels.
Then there's his poem -
driving with the siren on
rushing through stilled doors
with his heavy box. Feeling her ribs crack
the resistance of her mouth on tubes.
Covering her face, driving away, sirens silent.
Some day I'll write my poem -
about filling my trolley
with olives, Colombian coffee, full fat cheese,
going mad with the pick'n'mix, buying gin
in the blue bottle. Lifting my feet
to ride the back of the trolley
across the tarmac
in the rain.
Page(s) 18
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