poetry pRO Featured Broadcast Alwyn Marriage
6 British Poets in Bucharest and Series – bilingual collections

Poets: browse the list

SHOP ONLINE for ppf books & poem cards & more …        MEMBERS’ EVENTS – readings, courses, venues
COMPS & CALLS listed by Members – 14Nov: Barnet

 

 

donations will be very gratefully received.

latest on site:
   Susan Jordan
   Sue Proffitt
   Jenny Hamlett

latest new pages:
   Michael Swan
   Marion Ashton
   Mimi Khalvati
   Michael Loveday (biog)
   Marion Tracy
   Merryn Williams
   Heidi Williamson
   Moira Andrew
   Dennis Tomlinson (biog)
   Neil Leadbeater
   Ruth O’Callaghan
   Chris Considine

Comps & Calls:
14Nov: Barnet

Comp results:
   Frogmore 2017
   Ware 2017
   Second Light 2016

Poem Cards, books:
   ppf shop online

latest cards:
Anne Stewart (Birthday)
Katherine Gallagher (Anytime)

shop window:
   browse

featured poet, Jo Roach

Ghost in the Machine

Jack Davis in overalls, wearing a cap
after his day job as a brickie, repairs
secondhand bikes, to earn extra
to pay the mortgage on the house he painted
green, white and yellow, at the time of ads
in corner shops, ‘Rooms to let, no blacks no irish’.
In the box room of number sixteen, spare wheels
hang from six inch nails, the floor a shingle
of nuts and bolts, the smell of three-in-one oil
heavy as khaki. Hands fretted from wire wool
he polishes aluminium rims to silver, removes
links from the chain until it fits. His memory
full of the sea, fine tunes into each wave
as if it were the one that broke when he left
a country where there are no words for yes and no.
Sue-Sue Lambert shopping in Dunlaoghaire
meets one of the Davises and asks,
“ Is Jack not after coming home? ”
 

Jo Roach

previously published in Poetry Wales and Dancing at the Crossroads

© Copyright of all poems featured on this site remains with the poet
site feedback welcome