Postcards from Malthusia DAY SEVENTY-ONE: Knotbrook Taylor

Psalm 102: ‘shun ye the vortex’

 

taut-faced Madonna sitting in her milky bath

surrounded by floating petals

she’s hunched up to her knees: all wet

talking about the great equaliser: and all going down together

rich and poor: her knuckles white as she grips the taps

 

I walk up the stairs

I walk down the stairs

 

Trump rambling about a wonder drug

used for treating malaria: it might work here

says he is feeling good: says he’s feeling optimistic

denies that America is afraid: he is afraid

 

I walk up the stairs

I walk down the stairs

 

pubs have stayed open in defiance

people insist on a party

curfew is threatened

if we don’t stay at home

 

13 steps and several dust angels

clinging to the risers

 

yesterday spoke to my neighbour

over the garden fence

works in a lab

said the big V: more infectious than flu

 

reach the top of the stairs

wonder how I got there

slowly walk back down

 

 

 

Knotbrook Taylor is an Angus-based poet, winner of the 2014 Erbacce Prize for his collection Ping-Pong In The Rain.  His poems have also appeared in Scottish Lighthouse Poems (2011) and Beatitudes (2007).  www.knotbrook.co.uk