David Francis
Narrative of a Straggler
The narrow street you wend down
or else it’s the open country - -
on either side the shuttered windows
or the window glass flat against the scant pavements
no hint of life in this village
except for the personalised storefronts
stickers, decals, flyers, statements
but not even a lifting of a curtain - -
on this stingy street there are no shops
for the thirst or hunger of a stranger
night defined by the length of a shadow
without even the suicide-beckoning sea
a cloistered monasterial rule
without even a casual acquaintance to verify
the dimming dull-reflecting window glass
like eyes of an inbred fear-ridden clique
you march with weighing pack and sweaty armour
toward the T-shape that ends this suffocating street
clank and climb the funnel of cobblestones
without sympathy, function, sustenance or plan
the echoes of metallic battle cry
like a bug caught in the jug of your head
Page(s) 19
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