Poetry at Sangam

Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.

Remembered Them by Les Wicks

Apart from just that once
Harry never discusses Vietnam
but I know.
My current crop of money
is eaten, but he’s got it much worse.
Harry hauls home his slab
like a fallen doe this
big white hunter but now
he stalks a good lie-down & yells a lot.

There’s wages attached, he lives alone.
Labourer Tigers supporter 60’s music Levi 501s birdwatcher
bodysurfer uncle long-term resident handyman
redhead greybeard helping-out asleep by 10 & wishes within reason.
That should be enough.

There is an irrefragable grace
as he tears apart old cars.
They never come together again he thinks he is
a 1985 Ford & dissection is his pilgrimage.

Yesterday, called those kids outside Asian cunts
& they beat him down to manners.
I shut my windows –
like a judgement.
Nothing broken, now that’s a stretch.
He’s another token taken
not spent, just stirred.
Been forgotten since the 80’s,
remember that.
 
 
 
previously published Getting By Not Fitting In (Island, 2016)

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