Jim Burns
Kerensky In Southport
It was such a beautiful town,
the wide main Street with its
fountains and flowers, and shops,
all latticed fronts and gilded
pillars. Even the beach was
attractive, apart from when they
used it as a car-park. True,
there was a fun-fair, but then
we sometimes had those in Russia.
I thought it a good place to be,
until the Bolsheviks followed
and the first Bingo Hall opened
on Lord Street. Soon, there were
Wimpy Bars, and cinemas showing
sex films, and once I saw the
football crowds advance in line
like Trotsky’s militia, but with
less real reason in their hate,
though the result was the same.
And then the students and their
shrill girls began to sprawl in all
the pubs, parading their intellects
with discussions about pop-music,
and the quality of the beer.
It was time to call it a day,
I walked to the end of the pier,
passing the pinball machines,
sniffing the greasy chips,
and peering in each direction.
To the north lay crude Blackpool,
to the south sullen Liverpool,
straight ahead the Irish Sea,
and then the mid-Atlantic
I turned around and headed inland,
towards the Ribble Valley.
Perhaps, on some peak overlooking
the river, I could find a refuge
from these unwelcome changes.
Page(s) 62
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