Pat Borthwick
Sample
Through coloured, leaded glass
two fluorescent shapes
float high above hydrangeas
then bend towards our door
and rap.
I, tall as the telephone shelf,
swing the front door open.
Outside, inside the porch,
two open leather cases dazzle.
Brushes, bottles, liquid polish,
rolled yellow dusters,
sparkling rows of tins.
And above them,
two Kleeneze men,
shoes reflecting our mosaic hall,
double-breasted suits,
trousers pressed razor-sharp,
pink and lilac turbans
set like crescent moons
afloat over grizzled beards.
Eyes, the size of conkers,
gleam from the darkest skin
I’d only ever seen before
hurling spears, befriending snakes
in my Rupert Bear Annual.
Poisonous Coon Island.
With the widest, whitest smiles
they offer me free samples.
I slam the door,
tangle in coats beside the stairs,
wishing I could glimpse
a bright red top,
checked yellow trews
and matching yellow scarf
hung there.
Page(s) 115
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