In Mrs Tilscher’s Class - by
You could travel up the Blue Nile
with your finger, tracing the route
while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery.
Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswân.
childhood
11:00: Baldovan - by
Base Camp. Horizontal sleet. Two small boys
have raised the steel flag of the 20 terminus:
me and Ross Mudie are going up the Hilltown
for the first time ever on our own.
The Plinky-Boat - by
Something near to true
night-darkness. The children
are playing the Plinky-Boat –
a xylophone made
from a reclaimed yoal
Left Behind - by
I cannot bring myself to burst your everywhere balloons
/ That cheer our rooms, mementos of delight,
/ Nor bundle bears, deep buried in…
Celestial Planisphere, a glow-in-the-dark jigsaw for ages 7+ - by
Somebody’s mum hauled you to your feet. / Galaxies had shifted. Your voyage was complete. …
no angel - by
(After Judge Ian Starforth Hill described a nine year old rape victim
/ as “not exactly an angel herself” and gave…
Learning to Stand - by
On the earth a stretched second
/ you stood, balanced. Gravity
/
/ glued dolly shoes. You wore
/ the sky on your head, jauntily,
/
/ light blue paper…
For Katie On Her Eighteenth Birthday - by
O little daughter of delight / and grave and lovely growing girl / Years after year you see the white…
The House Where I Was Born - by
The ghosts are easy. I can switch them on
/ like a tv soap. Here’s Pa going up the stairs,
/ flip flap,…
Parting - by
i.m. Julie Betty Rowan
/
/
/ Early autumn the school trunk would re-appear
/ as if to say summer was over, time for my sister…
I. Hall of Mirrors, 1964 - by
Quam angusta innocentia est,
/ ad legem bonum esse.
/ Seneca
/
/ It wasn’t a fairground so much;
/ just an acre of clay on old man…
Adam, There are Animals - by
There is a small fox
/ slipping through the fabric of morning,
/ still coated in a layer of grey dusk
/
/ and carefully placing his…