Helen Moore
THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR
has primrose yellow walls
that still look newly painted,
and sometimes the Sun
warms the upper storey,
and Moon gleams on slates that fall
when gales reach 40 knots.
The front door’s black
and shiny, but its midriff flap
ingests just ads, party
campaigns and religious tracts.
Spring sprouts blousy,
sulphur-coloured Poppies,
and a slouch of Winter Jasmine
still needs training. Sunsets
may gild rear windows,
but it’s the eastern side
that fronts the yard, where Crocus,
Flowering Cherry and Fuchsia
delight no occupants.
Spiders, Slaters, Mice inhabit
floorboards, and a broken pane
admits its quota of Flies.
Three years so,
and damp must settle inside –
but in rooms of our imagination,
some law would have the homeless,
the stateless fleeing war
bring curtains, cooking, soul.
APPROACHING BRITAIN, SNAPSHOTS 2017
has primrose yellow walls
that still look newly painted,
and sometimes the Sun
warms the upper storey,
and Moon gleams on slates that fall
when gales reach 40 knots.
The front door’s black
and shiny, but its midriff flap
ingests just ads, party
campaigns and religious tracts.
Spring sprouts blousy,
sulphur-coloured Poppies,
and a slouch of Winter Jasmine
still needs training. Sunsets
may gild rear windows,
but it’s the eastern side
that fronts the yard, where Crocus,
Flowering Cherry and Fuchsia
delight no occupants.
Spiders, Slaters, Mice inhabit
floorboards, and a broken pane
admits its quota of Flies.
Three years so,
and damp must settle inside –
but in rooms of our imagination,
some law would have the homeless,
the stateless fleeing war
bring curtains, cooking, soul.
APPROACHING BRITAIN, SNAPSHOTS 2017
* From the UNITED List of Deaths, 1/4/2019, documenting 36,570 deaths of refugees & migrants due to the restrictive policies of ‘Fortress Europe’, (such as border closures, asylum laws, accommodation, detention policies, deportations, carrier sanctions), which date back to 1993. The list, which is updated annually, can be freely re-used, translated & re-distributed, provided the source is cited: unitedagainstracism.org
© Copyright Helen Moore 2021
Helen Moore is an award-winning British ecopoet, socially engaged artist and writer. She has published three poetry collections, Hedge Fund, And Other Living Margins (Shearsman Books 2012), ECOZOA (Permanent Publications 2015), and The Mother Country (Awen Publications 2019) exploring aspects of British colonial history. She offers an online mentoring programme, Wild Ways to Writing, and works with students internationally. She has been awarded a grant by the Royal Literary Fund to support her work. helenmoorepoet.com