The Sick Man
after Jules Superveille
this sky this sky is too bloody big too big for travel le ciel
as an ocean this sky too deep no rooms available
this city too teeming the countryside too dull
I am ceiling sky ground water squall
I have not adjusted to living well
still a maladjusted brat with a pail
I cough then forget when I cough [all my handkerchiefs smell]
and every one of seventy-seven years cough along as well
in chorus the year? Twenty-Twenty the last century free to fall
all new-borns are born fully equipped with senility
old men a No-Go zone words curdle
in my pen a sunflower a young man a snowflake in hell
is glowing what’s on my hands in infinitesimal
They begin to sing from balconies of hail
Since Matthew Caley‘s debut Thirst (Slow Dancer, 1999) was nominated for The Forward Prize for best first collection, he has published four more collections and read his work widely. His sixth collection is Trawlerman’s Turquoise (Bloodaxe, 2019).
