Kevin Cadwallender
Julian And The Land Of The Rising Sun
Julian is a kamikaze pilot.
He works on the buses
the work is dangerous
a one way ticket and
no change given.
His passengers
are nervous,
gazing beyond the ‘No smoking’ signs,
Communing with Nexus the god of public transport,
Maybe today is the day they think
as half-remembered bus journeys flash past,
Maybe today they will get their ticket punched,
Watching the winding of the roll display
until the destination reaches, ‘Oblivion’.
Julian is a kamikaze pilot
moving at breakneck speed towards
red lights, the spurred sun wrapped
around his forehead.
Gambling on the highway code
Rule 1945
Give way to buses driven by psychopaths
He narrows his eyes
at mushroom clouds in rear-view mirrors,
the woman with a bus pass
lip reads his whispered, ‘Banzai!’
Rising like dawn
from out of the pages of the Sun
a taxi driver who thinks he
is ‘Biggles’.
Endgame.
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