Volume 5 | Issue 1 | April - May
2011 |
Afternoon Man
Nigel Burwood
About to press the bell
at the ground floor flat,
I saw Lotte's body
through the forest of plants
that guarded the window.
Her body and another body,
rather too closely entwined.
Some morose afternoon man,
pigtailed around baldness.
I quietly absented myself.
There must be a German word,
for this feeling -
an equal measure
of jealousy and relief.
Dancing Man
I crossed the gold room
making for the wallflowers.
Will you dance?
I am a dancer,
please dance with me.
I've been alone
reading a dull book.
Today until now has been a bore,
hold me tightly to you
on this shining floor.
A precious pleasure
to dance with a stranger,
so close. To measure
our steps around this
gaudy ballroom.
Let me lead,
the light will follow.
Nigel Burwood - Nigel Burwood, British, lives in Santa Cruz, California and also in London and Norfolk part of the year. When he isn't writing poems and publishing them in literary journals, he sells books on the Internet, attends auctions and plays golf. A collection of his poetry is currently published in World's Strand, an international anthology (academici/UK 2006) for which he suggested the title, helping to mold the vision. An English major with a degree from Southampton, favorite poets and writers include Baudelaire, Eliot, Borges, Nabokov and Meades.
