Poem of the Month

A new poem will be placed here each month, usually from one of my published collections.

My poem for October 2018 is “Ballad” from my most recent collection The Museum of Truth (Melos, 2018) and it was written in the immediate aftermath of the lamentable Brexit vote.

 

Ballad

 

As I went out one morning,

when Autumn leaves were dry;

I found it hard to credit

the brilliance of the sky.

 

I looked into its blueness

and felt the warming sun

then turned towards the city

for my day had just begun.

 

I saw the slumped night-workers

asleep in crowded trains;

I saw the cocky bankers

as they plotted easy gains.

 

I saw a silent chippie,

with a toolbox and a saw;

among the posh commuters

his eyes were on the floor.

 

I read the morning headlines

on someone else’s Mail:

a TV chef was cheating

and Curry’s had a sale;

 

and in a distant war-zone

a hospital was razed;

I saw the children running,

their neighbourhood ablaze.

 

I left at Covent Garden,

the sun was still as bright;

and Europe’s offshore island

was tucked up trim and tight.