Christopher
Oh, Christopher, believe me, I’m with you;
it’s hard being ordinary, with a surfeit
of feeling that won’t elegantly form itself.
Inadequacy of thought, of sensibility
is a grave handicap in this writing life
we have chosen. Every day the same:
stumbling in the alleys looking for a gift
out of there, lost again in a dark city.
I understand why you chose killing –
it can be done like fixing up a shelf.
There was a tendency in you to stand
back and admire your deft handiwork.
Like the bodies were stories in long grass –
that first unbelievable paragraph.
(from The Sopranos Sonnets and Other Poems, Nine Arches Press, 2010).
Roz Goddard is West Midlands Readers’ Network Co-ordinator.
Follow on Twitter @happytoread / On Facebook: West Midlands Readers Network
Check out the new website: www.wmreadersnetwork.co.uk