Today’s featured poem is by Tristan
Moss, taken from his new pamphlet, The Cold War (Lapwing Publications,
2022).
By approaching its devastating subject
matter aslant via an extended metaphor, this poem is packed with implicit
questions. Therein lies its power, wondering, for example, how we verbalise our
reactions to death and grief. And then it ponders what type of driver we are.
Or what type of mourner…
MY DAD’S DEATH
a van
speeding down the motorway,
backdoors flailing
boxes falling out.
Some drivers keeping their distance,
others trying to get by,
or some like myself
picking up what’s been left behind.
(Previously published in issue 203 of Snakeskin)
Fifty-odd years ago Herbert Lomas, a lovely man and very good poet,
published a book suggesting that we could solve a lot of problems by just
getting rid...