Jasmine Gibbs
Bitter January morn.
We shun the desolate promenade for a moment
to let the old girls in the café gnaw our ears off
about the dead season, smokeblue fade tinging
the colours on bygone circus posters. ‘Right grisly’
they tut. That we do not have a thousand words
for grey remains an oversight. Today, the sky’s
paint shade matches the curlicues of fag smoke
outside the bingo hall. Amusement lights twinkle
& twinkle atop the pier decks, the sound of derby
races galloping for no one. Over the cut of waves
that big, invisible ‘EXIT’ sign ghosts on. We hold
our breath beneath search helicopters, store photos
of ‘the Missing’ in the corner pockets of our eyes.
Jasmine Gibbs is a poet from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. She has an Msc in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh, where she was Poetry Editor for their 24/25 anthology From Arthur’s Seat. Her work can be found in Outcrop Poetry, Tenter Hooks, and Filler Zine.
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