No.58, Slorkram
by and published in Edition Ten of Pomegranate
This stilted house with tacit heart speaks
Out in castigation of the card-counting
Swindlers gambling by the river.
His ferny feet point to secrets buried
Deep in the soil, down beneath the timber;
Where, all earthy, only spiders stray.
Together we watch the sky like television
Screens: lapis days turn back to black
Booted nights but we natter on
Letting colours creep and silence shuffle
Out from the shadows in the shrubs –
Like milk mixing into tea. Tonight
It’s the ether eyeballing us; its winds gallop
From tufts to yarns then settle in yawns –
A telltale sign to canter off to bed.
‘Remember Michael’ (with a voice
As brass as bells): ‘Inside all bones are white
And souls are soft as ripened Mango’.
‘Of course. I won’t forget it.’
And tomorrow can we talk about
That Big City who lost his feathered hat.
Michael Pedersen
Michael Pederen is a 24 year old poet of Caledonian stock. His inaugural chapbook ‘Part-Truths’ is available via Koo Press – www.koopress.co.uk. The chapbook (launched during the Edinburgh Word Festival 2009) has received a kind cartel of reviews and was named in the Poetry Society Quarterly Listings.
Michael is currently self-exiled in Cambodia completing his first full collection and assembling a script for a motion picture.
For more details see www.michaelpedersen.co.uk
or visit ‘Part-Truths’ facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=73397830831&ref=ts