Martin Booth
The Lantern Spectre
—after Hokusai—
poor spectre
with the worry of worlds in your frown
a man blazoned on your temple
and a hole
smouldering in your back
we feel
we know what it’s like
to be without light
have a mouth full of burnt wires
and a stifled laughter
hung in the thrumming night
of insects and frozen blooms
by the bamboo stalks
there’s a sorry state of things
in the garden
the birds lay stone eggs
the worms cast flesh
the stars are indistinct
the fish rise only to vomit
the moon is defiled
and the smoke
moving through your cage of bone and wire
is pink against blue night
sorry spectre
sad spirit of flame
with no light left
and the prize of fire
dulled to an ochre disuse
dust collecting in your hair
a small girl
reached to smooth your hair
to kiss you
to raise your eyes from sorrow
why did you burn her hand
why did you bite with fire
the soft flesh of the flower
tomorrow night
you’ll hang from the tree on the beachside
and the spray’ll get you
Page(s) 16-17
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