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Craiglockhart

Brian Johnstone

Maybe they’re here somewhere, lost
in these crowds of students, informal
in their tweeds, plus fours –

Sassoon, the elder, Sunday golfer;
Owen, bookish, gangly, pale – mingling
with the queue for the refectory,

snatching nervously at fags, ignoring
notices forbidding all those here
to smoke. You catch a glimpse

you think, later, in the distance
– backs straight, military haircuts –
turning down a corridor you glance along

but they’re not there. No, no-one is, though
low light slants through window frames,
plants these crosses on the wall.


Brian Johnstone

Reproduced by kind permission of the poet.

Tags:

Edinburgh poems about poets war war memorials World War I
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Brian Johnstoneb.1950

Brian Johnstone is a poet, performer and literary events organiser.
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