Drawing by Judith Wolfe
Alan Coull

Poems


      EAST OF SCARBOROUGH

      Time to go under swollen nor-west sky
      but without the wind to push me
      as I depart under the pungent
      scent of Valeriam, geranium and thyme.

      Nagging at me the sullen slighted sea
      breasts the bar at right angles,
      so I dream of my open window
      letting the surfs monotone
      into my room on full moon beam.

      Then I'm woken and drawn to those
      flat lines of the morning east of Scarborough,
      before the sun ups to blaze a path
      to my bed along which spirits and dreams
      come and go.

      Now I want to be washed outaway
      by the easterly rain to run
      in rivulets then torrents down drains
      paths and dranonic steps to the sea.

      But the rain doesn't come
      And I am trapped by the risen sun.

      QUICKLY FOR FAR TOO LONG

      Yes it seemed that everything went too quickly
      for far too long,
      by then lips were hard swollen
      no permission given
      no touch was wrong.

      Till the intolerable
      slowness of bending backs
      and sickle thighs
      crept up to plunder your mouth
      squeezing out your eyes ...
      now carried in my pocket.


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