The Ofi Press Magazine

Poems By Ben Banyard (UK)

Published in The Ofi Press issue 46

Blighty

If I close my eyes tightly

and strain to hear the blood

roaring in my ears I can almost

feel I’m at home with you.

As I shrink from another shell

I imagine you gathering around,

your faces crowding the platform

lifting me from the carriage.

Here there is mud and hell,

boys cry and we hide,

praying for the quiet of meadows,

a cuckoo calling from the wood.

Arranged Marriage

We met at my father’s house

married as strangers weeks later

finding ourselves unsupervised in bed.

I resisted this hollow union

until I was taken ill;

you endeared yourself with soup.

Fifty years and four children

found us smooth like pebbles.

I never thought I’d miss you. 

 Life is like a Rubik’s Cube

With a few good twists

you can set it straight.

Colours uniform and true,

beaming faces primly presented:

a satisfying factory reset.

But try cheating and you’ll find

tampering isn’t so clever.

Attempting to right it

just for appearances

will mean it never works properly again.