Author Archives: colinhopkirk

perching at the bar on one of those high stools nurses his lager-tops watches younger men playing darts and pool and the big twin screens showing cricket and football in strangely lurid hues

The old man with the trilby slightly plastered shares a tale of luck and strange mortalities how one dead friend on holiday wrote another’s eulogy Died while he was out there before the fucking funeral What are the chances, eh?

As the wrestlers squeeze into their outfits agreeing how the bouts will go the women with handbags and interesting hats rush the front seats

Cotton wool for snow Sheep as large as donkeys The child a little careworn in his rickety crib Mary leans off kilter Joseph props her up A king is lying down overcome by the occasion and there’s a shepherd missing Perhaps an argument about the finer points of flock-tending a lock-in at the Inn AContinue reading “A Christmas tableau”

This evening because the moon is low we understand Hare ‘You!’ he shouts with his sing-song voice louder than you might imagine ‘Yes, you, two-legs Fuck off out of my poem!’

After the funeral he took his father’s shoes (Expensive shoes the ugliest you ever saw) wore them out in all weathers let them rot until the soles flapped trying to escape the ratty uppers holding on for dear life

A low mist wanders in hangs around the station ambles down the ginnels muckys up the washing sidles up to strangers mumbles something murky kicks the vicar’s shins steals the church collection strolls into the Rose & Crown orders three large whiskies and waits for Police Constable McNally with his magical handcuffs and his newContinue reading “A low mist”

For V.G. Hot engine oil High volume rock & roll that rattled ribs and made us dream of flick knives and slicked back hair Italian girls with coal black eyes

Tall as houses No, Taller The speed of it A stray spark The back field roaring Jumping from house to house No, not jumping Leaping then? Yes, leaping Or dancing Yes, dancing And fast So very fast A great wave Taking out the whole row How did it feel? We can’t explain It was terribleContinue reading “New Fire”

Shallow keel for beaching high prow for the waves Clinker built These sturdy boats were great ships once filled with iron and fire More poetry than you could swing a hammer at