This Week's 'Poem of the Day' . . .
THE ENGLISH ASTRONAUT
He splashed down in rough seas off Spurn Point.
I watched through a coin-op telescope jammed
with a lollipop stick as a trawler fished him out
of the waves and ferried him back to Mission
Control on a trading estate near the Humber
Bridge. He spoke with a mild voice: yes, it was
good to be home; he’d missed his wife, the kids,
couldn’t wait for a shave and a hot bath. ‘Are
there any more questions?’ No, there were not.
I followed him in his Honda Accord to a Little
Chef on the A1, took the table opposite, watched
him order the all-day breakfast and a pot of tea.
‘You need to go outside to do that,’ said the
waitress when he lit a cigarette. He read the
paper, started the crossword, poked at the black
pudding with his fork. Then he stared through
the window for long unbroken minutes at a time,
but only at the busy road, never the sky. And his
face was not the moon. And his hands were not
the hands of a man who had held between finger
and thumb the blue planet, and lifted it up to his
watchmaker’s eye.
Archive of weekly Poem of the Day
> Sally Baker, 'House' (The Sea and the Forest, 2009)
> Geoff Hattersley, 'Christmas Shopping' (Back of Beyond, 2006)
> John Lyons, 'A Grandmother's Home-Rule' (No Apples in Eden, 2009)
> Yvonne Green, 'Ghetto Blaster' (Boukhara, 2008)
> Michael Laskey, 'The Door' (The Man Alone, 2008)
> Catherine Smith, 'How it All Started' (Lip, 2007)
> Mike Di Placido, 'Best' (Theatre of Dreams, 2009)
> Michael Schmidt, 'Choosing a Guest' (Collected Poems, 2009)
> Michael McCarthy, 'At the Races' (At the Races, 2009)
> Anna Woodford, 'The Tree' (Party Piece, 2009)
> Carole Bromley, 'A Jewish Giant at Home with his Parents' (Skylight, 2009)
> Sally Goldsmith, 'You'll Know Her' (Singer, 2009)
See here for our Classic Poem of the Month.
See here for this month's From the Archives of The North.
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