Rhys Owain Williams
My streetlamped hometown stitched
between unlit hills like the Umbro logo.
An LED diamond pointing a vertex
towards the unseen star-shined sea.
High above this curling valley’s floor,
the estate I grew up on is growing.
New builds built around the vacant quarry’s lip,
furnished now with bald hallway bulbs
for children in pyjamas, adults awaiting taxis.
It’s a Saturday evening, dusk,
the living room lamps not yet all lit,
and starlings take flight above
the old farmer’s field, the new InPost locker
illumed on fresh concrete. This outside dark
has crept in, curtains still open on
faces Rembrandted by televisions, phones.
The dog and I glide past, pretending not to look.
Climb, instead, to the estate’s highest point,
to imagine the murmuration’s sweeping valley view.
How, once, none of it was here. But all of it too.
Rhys Owain Williams is from Swansea, Wales. His writing has been published in magazines and anthologies, and read at events, festivals and on national television. He is the author of the poetry collections That Lone Ship (Parthian, 2018) and Here’s What Happens When You Enter a Black Hole (Parthian, 2026).
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