Trace My fingers walked to the fourth intercostal space. This is where I placed the first gel-backed tab. The next went opposite, across the sternum, on the nipple line. Easy then to make a descending arc, attach the leads until a trace appeared; the heart. Unlike in films when it stopped for good the line … Continue reading Two poems by Roy Marshall
Tag: Roy Marshall
‘Bonjour Tristesse’ by Roy Marshall
Draw the blind on roofs of vein-blue lead. Your heart will beat through spine, chest, nipple and neck, send dream down your vertebrae. Sleep, as morning sun founds an empire of shadow around the fountains of the Tuileries, a tide of shutters recede from patisseries, the canary’s eyes blink open on the balcony, a … Continue reading ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ by Roy Marshall
‘Blackbird in Winter’ by Roy Marshall
Blackbird in Winter He’s on a branch above my head velvet feathers at touching distance, yellow ringed eye locked to mine. Is an alarm call frozen in his breast, the urge to fly curtailed by heavy air, or is it to preserve energy and heat that he keeps still? Can he see in me a … Continue reading ‘Blackbird in Winter’ by Roy Marshall
‘Dying Arts’ by Roy Marshall
Dying Arts As the last window cleaner born during the age of whistling stashes his bucket and flannel and millions of ear plugs play into millions of closed circuit skulls it seems the art is only practised now by dry lipped ex-paperboys in retirement homes as they pour a morning brew becoming as rare as … Continue reading ‘Dying Arts’ by Roy Marshall
‘Instant Karma’ by Roy Marshall
Instant Karma The office cleaner sings beautifully and in Hindi. I ask her what her song means. 'The Lord says, I will give you what you want, when the time is right.' She leaves a world bright with belief, the mopped floor under my feet, the emptied bin of me. (from Gopagilla, first published … Continue reading ‘Instant Karma’ by Roy Marshall
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