A Book of Poetry
Five leaves Publications
www.fiveleaves.co.uk

Ross Bradshaw Blog

http://fiveleavespublications.blogspot.com/2010/01/finally-made-it-to-night-shift.html

All poems relate to the night.

120 plus pages including: WH Auden, Carol Ann Duffy,
John Clare, William Blake and a number of contemporary poets
including Peter Bennett, Linda France, Bob Beagrie and me.
Here is my poem.

Night Shift In The Rain

Car park’s dead, bottle banks castle corners,
rain shuffles across empty spaces.

Shopping trolleys block Safeway’s exit,
mongrels sniff for action,
high tail it behind the Co-op.

The security man adores TV,
knowing the hours he’ll not live.

Then they arrive. Wearing rainbows,
accuse grey,
from a world where melancholia is banned,
minor keys forcibly discouraged,
laughter, optimism obligatory.

Dog can’t believe its luck-
reversed and made a God!

They begin to dance, bang drums,
outrageous coloured costumes,
flattering air,
play violins, guitars, such joyful music-
shopping trolleys clapping
a synchronised beat.

This transcendental moment evaporates,
the dog witnessed events,
his tail’s unreliable.

The security man lost in a DVD,
the rest, us, too busy
watching rain attacking empty spaces.

Tom Kelly