Open the Window Lover
Let the street below catch
the scent of us, watch the canopies
of market stalls lift up,
heat rises but it must be stoked.
You sip from the cup freshly
brewed, ground Arabica
beans flick the blood of morning.
We hear children
running below, a simple game
of hide and seek, an easy choice
when all covers are pulled back
and we repeat for as long as we can;
passion, sleep, feed, pass…
Southern Cross
Roque Alonso, Paraguay July 2006
We left the world inside the church hall,
asleep in bunk beds below mosquito nets,
and sat out under the unending drape of stars.
We imagined being at the edge of the world,
and being able to see further beyond that,
finding a copious peace in the limitless.
And this conversation feels like if it was
the only conversation ever exchanged
it would be reason enough for creation.
You become everyone I have ever talked with
on the meaningful things, the reasons why,
and how this world could be put right.
But this moment unfolds; we do not direct it,
we couldn’t, we sit insignificant yet crucial
for these constellations blink just for us,
I feel the eyes of a father who watches
as his children smile at the moon
like a mobile in a cot always turning, singing,
moving above our rapt heads.
The Rabbits
For Rhonda
They weave in and out of the undergrowth,
picking up more courage each time,
keeping each other in sight
as they cut through the grass.
The world is oblivious to them
and they to it, fenced off in this isthmus
from the motorway, the movement
of man’s machinery, functional
lacks the grace and adventure
of the rabbits irregular dance.
The bus begins to pull away,
and as it gathers speed I place
my hand to the window, I hope
to catch one last glimpse
and one is there, head poking out
nose twitching, picking up a scent.
Glen Wilson lives in Portadown, Co Armagh with his wife Rhonda and children Sian and Cain. He has been widely published having work in The Honest Ulsterman, Foliate Oak, Iota, Boyne Berries, North West Words, Snapdragon Journal, Blue Max Review, The Screech Owl, Yellow Chair Review, A New Ulster and The Interpreters House amongst others. In 2014 he won the Poetry Space competition and was shortlisted for the Wasafiri New Writing Prize. He was runner up in the Glebe House Harmony Trust poetry competition in 2015. His work also appeared in the 2015 Making MemoriesAnthology and in The Stony Thursday Book 2015.
He is currently working on his first collection of poetry.
Twitter @glenhswilson, [email protected]
Recent Comments