Poem Of The Month: February 2011

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For February's Poem of the Month I have chosen Michael Massey's poem Backroads. It is taken from his collection: "Sifting Through Ashes."

BACKROADS

As I cruise in tunnel vision

hedges, fields blur backwards

in peripheral watercolour green.

I steer phrases, feelings, rhythms

into gaps I never filled, never knew

existed. I wait for clutches of incubating

words to yield yellow chicks, watch

in wonder as they stagger

from brittle, broken shells.

When green turns to grey

vision widens into fisheye.

Twin metronomes clear streams

of consciousness like cleansing

a blackboard of cyphers. Once

again on spinning coin wheels

I am absorbed into torpedo flow

aimed at city’s heart.

Road by Bobby Mikul

City Pollution by Peter Griffin

Copyright Text © Michael Massey 2010

Copyright Cover Image © Larry Wemyss 2010

All rights reserved

The author has asserted her/his right under Section 77

of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988

to be identified as the author of this work.