Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Poetry Library Southbank Centre - The Poetry Library housing the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre

« Previous item
Contents of this issue
Next item »

Anne Ryland

print this page

Breakfast in the Refectory

She spread herself thinly, methodically
through those pale winter days
like a scraping of margarine across toast.
There was never quite enough to reach
the crust, for yellow pools to form
that a person might swim about in.

Other students lined the trestle tables,
fed themselves on porridge and sausages
and eggs, as if this breakfast
were their first or their last.
The boy with plasters on his forehead laughed.

There were the people who got seconds
and thrived around the heart of groups,
then the few alone with their letters,
hand-written words more filling than food.
Everyone was ignored by the giant portrait
of a former prime minister.

The room shivered with knives on plates.
The industrial toaster churned out slices
that piled up in a rickety mountain.
A tideline of leftovers crept up the plastic bin.

Now the football and hockey players were leaving,
ankles clipped and jackets padded,
their faces splashed the greedy red of those
who knew how to take and could afford to let go.
She eyed the lantern of the marmalade.

 

Page(s) 23

Back to top