Brian Smith
Dead Bat
Dark flyer, hunter of dusk bug,
your asdic made the air sing
until our cat, with careless shrug
tore you from your echoing.
Here, in gargoyle moue of face
like medieval limnery of ire
and deepest sin, a guilty trace
of my suppressed desire;
a nocturnal itch to broomstick
along with others of the night
on membraned leather, a quick
Beelzebub of flight.
Yet, there's something Savile Row,
intimations of bespoke tailoring,
that sparks the need to know
who patterned your fold of wings?
your asdic made the air sing
until our cat, with careless shrug
tore you from your echoing.
Here, in gargoyle moue of face
like medieval limnery of ire
and deepest sin, a guilty trace
of my suppressed desire;
a nocturnal itch to broomstick
along with others of the night
on membraned leather, a quick
Beelzebub of flight.
Yet, there's something Savile Row,
intimations of bespoke tailoring,
that sparks the need to know
who patterned your fold of wings?
Page(s) 23
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