Paul Stephenson
I can see boats and colourful umbrellas.
I can see heads and torsos and arms holding
colourful umbrellas in boats. I can see men
driving boats of heads and torsos and arms
holding colourful umbrellas, see the mouths of
men driving boats moving, saying things I can’t
hear to heads and torsos and arms holding
colourful umbrellas. What are the men saying?
Do I want to hear? Would I want to know?
I can see the mouths going through the motions
in boats and mouths going through the motions
with umbrellas. I can see colourful umbrellas
giving shade to heads and torsos and arms in
boats, umbrellas going through the motions of
keeping the sun off heads and torsos and arms
though other days it’s rain when it’s raining on
heads and torsos and arms holding colourful
umbrellas in boats of men with moving mouths.
Paul Stephenson’s debut collection Hard Drive was published by Carcanet in 2023. It was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Awards and the Polari Book Prize. He has three earlier pamphlets and lives between Brussels and Cambridge.
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