Borderline
for and after Lawrence Sail
the sump-life of the place – Seamus Heaney
These are the flatlands
stitched between flood-plain and ditch,
everything provisional,
ooze and sluice.
The estuary looks walkable,
spines of red clay
rising from slate water
with flanks of weeping slip
which shimmer mother-of-pearl,
silver, molten.
A powerboat that was toy
bounces through its roar,
its wake slapping
the cledge, scattering wagtails.
The stranded barge
of The Turf breathes easy,
its spur both tongue
and poop-deck.
Beyond, a train
becomes its horn;
skeletal willows inch greener;
and an oarsman
pushes himself backwards
into the future.
(from Riddance)
Anthony Wilson is a poet, writing tutor and lecturer at the University of Exeter. Riddance, his fourth collection of poetry, has just been published by Worple Press. Love for Now, a prose memoir, is due from Impress Books in September 2012.
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