Paul Birtill
Big Letdown
When I was a boy I would visit
my local library each Saturday
and borrow books about the lives
of famous people. Then I’d sit
and wonder what great, exciting
adventures lay before me. Now
I’m an old man and as my life
draws to a close I realise it’s
all been a big letdown. No leading
my armies into battle. No great
speeches in parliament. No Oscars,
Nobel Prizes or travelling to exotic
places - not even an illicit love affair.
Just recently I’ve taken to borrowing
those same books again, but instead of
reading them I take them home and deface them.
my local library each Saturday
and borrow books about the lives
of famous people. Then I’d sit
and wonder what great, exciting
adventures lay before me. Now
I’m an old man and as my life
draws to a close I realise it’s
all been a big letdown. No leading
my armies into battle. No great
speeches in parliament. No Oscars,
Nobel Prizes or travelling to exotic
places - not even an illicit love affair.
Just recently I’ve taken to borrowing
those same books again, but instead of
reading them I take them home and deface them.
Page(s) 6
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