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5/6/2017 1 Comment

Poetry: Glasgow (Revisited) by Steven Mayoff

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​Glasgow autumn was. Always.

…

My uncle’s wood bare floors and pale
vases green. A child’s upright
piano bust, his mother done by.

            Another clay beside figure
it (androgynous. Perhaps
unfinished. Perhaps)
​
My uncle’s own and bedroom aunt
and my guest mother a room.
The crib child’s room
​            ​            shared and I.

Long uncle-legged, a teacher
lean artist. Dull breaking
plaster wall-space (grey between
hung painting one his.

​            ​            A man) chair sitting
blue, head propped hand.

Waiting his.

…

Glasgow flew to we,
my I mother. Clouds close
hovered, tails by​            wisping
patch spectral. My stuck suction

​            face a cup to small glass
window fish bowl. Ocean I
below could.​            Vast.
And distant. Unreal and.

…

Apple child-cheeked (and ringlet
​            mopped inky. He) naked
cold flat white. Pitched yowl
high the corner every piercing.
Dance ritual or an absurd.

Music machine strained cheap, dappled he
and scratchy, in one round
​            ​place turning. (And round.
​            Expressionless. A between)
cross music. Holy box shaman and.

Mother my child aunt, great
sweaters inhabited.
Usually hair brown covered
straight. A kerchief by and. Stray
​            or two the strand
​            ​            always like.

Threads: escaping light.

…

Father off airport saw us.
​            A lounge was chair arms
and couches with. And sand
standing ashtrays filled
with. Crushed sprouting
​            cacti butts in well
​            desert-spaced. Huge were runway
seen windows through (which.
My I mother) as walked
tarmac passengers
with across. People glass
airplanes behind the watching.
​            ​The land and the take
off. One father of my.
Waving. His.

…

Early uncle’s flat I would room
mornings​            creep mother’s in
my. Half floor darkness sighed
boards heavy weight under my.
​            Snickering door her: opening
​            ​hinges of. Rolling bed’s
bundled body the topography
my I mother’s outline against
curled the cold. Whispering

slipped not to wake
​            so as covers her under.
Formed air lips like words
frost a winter in.

Waited. And. Movement for a.
Murmur, half her
eyes opening dark.
​            And distant. Unreal shuddered
body her tighter
and hugged herself she.

Stuttering throat her
rattled like. Engine.
Broke jagged.
Coughing raw (fits
into of. Growing.

Worse.)

…

Museum a Glasgow in. There was.

There a boy my was friend.
Two older years was
than he I. High we hollow
​            through walked
and corridors. The whale
of inside a. Tools
of (and exhibit weapons
swallowed. History). Whole.

And room then
there the. Was. Dinosaurs.
Repetition skeletons; a bone
reconstructed of. Room the pointing.

Blanks. The fill in.

Curve to run each hand my along
bump, each… still to search sleeping out
the marrow, unearthed even
after have the bones been.

…

White I night that as
bone lay ​            my bed in.
Dreamed and.

A moon under.

…

Past the morning and in crept
the I breathing
child’s crib. Books piano
past and, the parroting. Blue silence

(phonograph. My room’s
mother) crept toward.

​            ​Open finding. Door,
​            the and flat bed smooth.

Uncle my beside was
me standing his. Red. Eyes drawn
face his. Hair. My long
touched fingers (gentle.
​            ​Telepathy) some if
​            impart could they, by.

What me. To tell. He had.



ABOUT THE POET

Steven Mayoff was born and raised in Montreal, later on lived in Toronto and moved to the bucolic splendor of Prince Edward Island, Canada in 2001. His fiction and poetry have appeared in literary journals across Canada and the U.S. as well as in Ireland, Algeria, France, Wales and Croatia. He published two books of fiction: the story collection Fatted Calf Blues (Turnstone Press, 2009), which won a PEI Book Award, and the novel Our Lady Of Steerage (Bunim & Bannigan, 2015). Upcoming is a poetry collection Swinging Between Water And Stone to be published by Guernica Editions in 2019.
Find out more about Steven Mayoff on his website.


Feature image ​© Rebecca Chitticks, 2016
1 Comment
Duo Alberta link
2/3/2021 05:58:12 pm

Thanks for taking the time to share this.

Reply



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