
Poems by the selectors for SOUTH 65
The poems for SOUTH are selected anonymously by guest selectors. We thank Angela Croft and Roddy Williams who selected the poems for this issue. A poem from each of them appears below.
Windfalls
Sometimes I visit the old people
drift round the corner
in the winter light
sit and listen to a talk on Freud
watch a film, black and white
no matter if it’s dated
heard it all before
they’re always pleased
to see new blood
wake me up with tea at four
fetch my coat
escort me back across the road
strewn with berries
pecked by crows.
©Angela Croft
This book in Barnardos
The Geometry of Pasta
drew me to its black and white
its masterful sense of contrast
all hidden under the covers
Having fingered through the pages
for chessboard ponder ages
I'll come back to you, I murmured
Once the day had died
another bleached in to take its place
but had not inherited the book
The Hairy Bikers sneered at me
from their new position at the end of the shelf
but would not even lie
through their full colour
pastry-jammed teeth
I put them in the poetry section
where nobody looks
©Roddy Williams