East-running road
for KG
You walk out on the east-running road
just as far as the field
of sunflowers the tarmac bisects
where all day south their open faces
have pursued the light
so to your left they blaze before you
while to your right they have turned
cold green shoulders
but you don’t go far—not just eyes full
as you turn to admire the west
falling with its feathers
of purple cirrus where two contrails cross
like a clue you’ve no need of now
because the angles are clear
you set it down there’s no more to do
Boy-racer
It’s this has been
snarling about our bed
shearing sleep
to fourths and sixteenths
until we crack
we climb in the car
head for the beach
he roars back to mock us
in a burst of cylinders
red—chrome—black—
bobbing back-wheel
bouncing dangerously
skids onto the road
from some blind track
this boy-racer bare-
headed breaking sixty
squirms in his seat
dodging flies and grit
grimacing back at us
as he whips left
right now he guns
through glittering traffic
his face all grin
above a dark brake light
left arm threading
a black helmet by his side
speed and dust please
his bald black bride
Martyn Crucefix’s collections include Hurt (Enitharmon, 2010), The Time We Turned (Shearsman, 2014), A Hatfield Mass (Worple Press, 2014). He has translated Rilke’s Duino Elegies (Enitharmon, 2006) – shortlisted for the 2007 Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation – and Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus (Enitharmon, 2012) and Daodejing – a new version in English (Enitharmon, 2016). Forthcoming publications include The Lovely Disciplines (Seren, 2017) and limited editions of O. at the Edge of the Gorge (Guillemot Press, 2017) and A Convoy (If a Leaf Falls Press, 2017). Website and blog: http://www.martyncrucefix.com
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