Arriving
On the 16.04 I’m surrounded by boy-men
in baggy shorts and white T-shirts,
school kids, talking fast
about bikes and cc’s and Pug’s sister
who rides her Mum’s moped
and she’s not sixteen yet.
Two girls want to know how come the boys
got seats and they didn’t and six volunteers say
Sit here, you can sit here on my lap
and one does while the other nudges past me
to the window seat opposite.
She admires the view, as if
she hadn’t seen it before,
while the conversation swings from Adam
who’s going to be six foot three
because his brother is, to the girl on the lap
who gets a laugh when she says
she can feels something,
but not much. Ash has a massive blackhead.
My Mum does mine for 50p each!
You must be a millionaire!
And Henry Reed is a werewolf, with hair
that thick on his chest
and back. His eyebrows meet,
explains Jamie putting his finger on his own
proud gap, while Ryan’s only got
a few hairs on his shoulders.
Kelly shaves her legs every day and Daniel
wears Y-fronts
(because they’re comfortable)
and did anyone know that
there are three types of pubic hair;
black, brown and ginger haired people have…
Ssshh, tell it to everyone I should!
Then the train begins to slow
and as it tucks neatly into the station
they are ready by the doors
pounding the button marked Open.
Page(s) 8-9
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The