Joan Poulson
Only an Angel Will Do
I hope to persuade him to move in with me,
have been looking for an angel
to keep my windows clean and manage
my affairs, promote my work and wipe away dust
so negative energies won’t settle.
I saw him first while walking by the river:
a broad, willow-edged banking
we call the ‘Place of Angels’.
He sat - feet tucked into folds of his robe,
sturdy shoulders rippling the purple silk,
his towering gold plumage soft as Stanley’s ears.
He rests there every morning
on his pilgrimage up the mountain.
I need an angel to iron my clothes and linen:
no scorch marks; to shop, know
which cheeses I will like, which flowers;
to repair and replace, lift and carry,
to have an aversion to noise.
Only an angel will do: live on air,
be largely invisible, silent (though joyous
and content) never expect conversation
or smirking when he finds me talking to myself
or chanting, or dancing round the room to Queen.
I’m sure this is the one: caring for me
and my home so much more fulfilling
than traipsing up and down a mountain.
His references impeccable.
Page(s) 28
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