The Ofi Press Magazine

By Andrew McMillan, UK (Published in issue 13)

due to a man being hit by a train

the day is delayed

crowds shoulder to the screens of numbers

smug with all they aren’t saying

towns away under a freezing clear hand

a man broke himself across the line

some people bear the cold weight

on their palms better than others

some men paint others jump

empty themselves turn in side out

obliterate each exhausted lash

a suit yawns and mouths selfish

thirty miles downtrack a black scarf

is wailing in the wind

the year has been hard on all of us

--

Andrew McMillan was born in 1988 and is one of the poets who will “dominate UK poetry in years to come” according to the seminal new anthology The Salt Book of Younger Poets. His work is collected in two pamphlets, most recently the moon is a supporting player.

title:                             the vase

in the post-technological age the only way to write a poem is to show oneself writing it- anon

opener:                         the vase was a lot like my marriage

image 1:                        slender crane neck the way it felt in my hand

image 2:                        it was a pond we filled each night

                                   and woke each morning to find drained

personal confession:      I checked seven times and I still think I’ve left the tap on

image 3:                       it is always the most beautiful things that break easily

                                  think of leaves

the wider point:           prizing things for their aesthetic quality will lead

                                  to them being pushed to the backs of cupboards

                                  and/or lives

the line of bathos:        tonight I cleaned my own underwear

ender:                        the light reflected on your face and I grew

                                 towards it flowers