Matthew Stoppard
Nest Near the Spire
3rd Prize TUT Open Poetry Competition
The piano and doorjamb brushed shoulders,
Lank and rotund removal men’s knuckles snagged
Tassels of splinters lining the hinges.
Adjacent thoughts rustled behind net curtains:
The man with serried elderberry warts on his back
With a postcodeload of agate faces.
Telegrams of hand-me-down banter passed
Along doorstop junctions on side-parting highways
Ending semi-detached friendships.
The lorry’s belly bulged so much that
Cat carriers and a bald cactus were perched
On the laps of passengers.
We hauled past our High Street haunts:
Surname and Sons’ carpet, the thirsty laundrette,
The maggot shop, and fish bar.
To the house shadowed by the spire;
Flooding its rooms with jetlagged furnishings
And tired tenants’ numb lumbars.
The silk ink signature in a rent book
Took us away, high up in the county’s crook.
Page(s) 6
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