Ken Jones
Haibun: Ships in the Night
Slack water
between rip tides
the buoy
briefly upright
A waking dream. ‘As beasts crying sadly from hill to hill.’ Some German philosopher, on the lowing of fog horns. At the foot of her bed, the picture window frames the oil terminal and a procession of moon-lit tankers. Engines throb, and hundreds of tiny lights sparkle on the Haven. And all night long that rusty dredger clanks and groans.
Into the depths
a hanging chain
and the screams of gulls
Still she sleeps, with a slight snore. The sex was considerate rather than passionate. But, oh yes, the velveteen mousetrap. “You’re the first man I’ve slept with who hasn’t got a marine pilot’s licence.” It can get lonely bringing up three kids on your own. She found my small ad in The New Statesman & Nation : music, walking and existential philosophy. Plucky, that - makes me feel quite fond of her. I might have been a sex maniac or something. In fact, we’re both Bruckner fans.
A mutual mistake, mutually honoured. I’ll fetch her breakfast in bed and later fix a few things about the house. Mustn’t overstay my welcome.
Ebb tide
on each new sandbank
a solitary gull
Ships that pass in the night. They sound their sirens one to one. ‘Green to green and red to red, perfect safety go ahead’.
In the sky above the marshes are the first streaks of a new day.
Punt gun
and decoy pond
and the beat of wild ducks’ wings
Page(s) 33
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