Alan Dunnett
The Proposal
Perhaps I might say this tock with your permission
If I impose forgive tick why should you
Each day brings blunders faux pas indiscretions
Can it surprise you therefore to know
My confidence is thin? I put my foot
Through a large eggshell and paddle among raw
Energies: inchoate, blind, carnivorous,
Straining, mute with rictus, binding
Themselves about my ankle. On top
Of the world? Only in a manner
Of speaking. Last leg
Faltering. Atlas hardly bore less
And with better grace. Oh, to go nobly! To nobly
Go. (Let me just say this to you: amen
Sticks in my throat. Put another way, broad beans
Hold memories of revulsion, lungless
Reptilian malice. Is it possible -
In the face of historical uncertainty not to mention
Precipitant or at least pending uncertainty
As regards every next moment
To avoid all expressions which may
Lead to regret?) Coiled on a rock you sit,
Combing out your hair like a Spartan,
I am coming to you for advice. What do these runes
Really mean, if anything ? Can we believe
What we read in the papers ? What time
Is my bedtime? With your permission
Tick. Before the light goes out
I want to say (if I impose…) I want
To say to you that it is you
As far as I can be sure at this moment
Going now another one along in a minute
Yep still the same clearly a natural adherence
I can safely say if you will allow if you will
If you if you if if eff eff fuh fuh
Look at least no full sto
Page(s) 12
magazine list
- Features
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- 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