Beyond the Tent

The circus is over
      slipped from his grip
 
they carried her body
      she flew to an end
 
beyond the tent
      ten meters below
 
into a van
      closing her circle
 
the cats will be shipped
      within the circle
 
to a trace of jungle
      defined by the tent
 
or piece of savannah
      pitched one morning
 
I sip on whiskey
      folded the next
 
slow as my gaze
      sold for scrap
 
and focus my sights
      for iron and brass
 
on Africa
 

Scott Elder

published online at Poetry Teignmouth, 2019

 
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First the moon

then the wall      first a pale light
then your nape      the high cheekbone
a perfect fit      part of you
on the wall      one side dark
one side glowing      part of you
deep in bloom      one stone here
one stone gone      you feel no loss
dew is breathing      through your skin
the courtyard’s      empty
a waning gibbous      sole witness
to your flight      and fall
 

Scott Elder

published in Wild Court, 2020

 
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Open Market

Murmurs     cries
cabbages and corpses of cod on ice
 
Rosie    in line     distinctly hearing
first     the sea     cuttlefish and squid
 
a current insisting    what will it be?
fields of daisies swell in her throat
 
a bouquet of these     she sputters
twenty stems bleeding in curled fingers
 
six flights of stairs to a key in a door
she enters the room like a breath
 

Scott Elder

published in collection Maria, Erbacce Press, 2023;
first published in Poetry Ireland Review, 2022

 
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In The Maelström

First the fissure, then the fall
one little cog has given up
 
a bit of iron in a pool of oil
the concrete floor is weeping
 
underneath: a breath of earth
you attune your ear to whispers
 
a spiral tugging at your sleeve,
a pulsar’s secret murmur
 
lying limp on every tongue
of every stranger in the street
 
it’s just a tale, a star’s demise
I’ll have cognac with café
 
a cube of sugar for the bitter,
another for the bite
 

Scott Elder

published in collection Maria, Erbacce Press, 2023;
first published in The London Magazine, 2023

 
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