CJ Allen
THE PLEASURE BOATS
It ends. It ends
superbly. Hard to say
where ends begin.
It might’ve been years ago
or yesterday.
The bedside notes are not
much help. They tell me
things like ‘Shoes’, ‘My teeth’,
‘Napoleon’s comb’,
and fail, quite, to explain
the mystery
of pain or bring distress
under control.
Did anyone notice
the sixteen hundreds
happened without me?
Can somebody
catch me up? The grinning
fates point out
we’ve come unstuck. They are
calling in
the boats – Ravilious,
Maid of the Mists,
Irene, Cobb – as if
that meant something.
Copyright CJ Allen 2013
CJ Allen’s poems have been published in a wide range of magazine & anthologies in the UK, USA and elsewhere and have been awarded prizes in numerous competitions including the Arvon, Yorkshire, Ledbury, Ilkley, Nottingham and English Association. He was also shortlisted for this year’s Forward Best Single Poem Prize. His publications
include A Strange Arrangement: New & Selected Poems (Leafe Press), Violets (Templar Press), Lemonade and At the Oblivion Tea-Rooms (Nine Arches). A new collection, Poems to My Horse, is forthcoming from Leafe Press in
autumn 2013.
include A Strange Arrangement: New & Selected Poems (Leafe Press), Violets (Templar Press), Lemonade and At the Oblivion Tea-Rooms (Nine Arches). A new collection, Poems to My Horse, is forthcoming from Leafe Press in
autumn 2013.
