Paul Davidson
Death Of A Schoolfriend
This photo:
A soft monochrome. Distanced.
Shadow of a world turned.
Here’s your face;
And mine; both blurred.
And there’s the sea coming in.
I’ve changed. So much
You wouldn’t recognise me.
I’m old now;
Head full of storms and
Little cracks; my skin
A crumpled photograph;
And these puffed-up eyes,
Sleepless.
You come into my sleep;
A cut-out picture of Jesus
From a child’s painted blue sea,
With pale eyes
And one hand waving.
You’re floating outside of me,
Through the searchlights’
Red scrawl, the plastic sheet,
And the coastguard’s van,
A silver splinter
On the moon’s face.
My fingers are black clouds.
They discolour you;
But they can’t blot you out.
The light of you just
Bleeds through.
Reaching back, you’re
White-hot; burning coal
On an angel’s lips.
I can’t bear to touch you.
You’re too clean.
Your little wings singe my face,
And gently, gently...
…You’re slipping back,
From the sea’s edge,
From these hard brown eyes
To this photo;
Light failing;
And this distance
Between us.
Page(s) 173-174
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