to wait behind, or folk to watch acutely
for invasion of your space. No queues outside

in all weathers ready for the nod to enter
and buy all those things you miss

Like hugs and handshakes and the gentle
stroke of understanding.

No plastic screens raised against spit
and infected water droplets.

No arrows to follow one way around
When we begin afresh, refreshed.

 

 

 

Selected byJenn Zed
Image credit:Adrien Delforge

Paul Brookes is a shop asst. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. First play performed at The Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull.  His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews, book reviews and  challenges. Had work broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Verb and, videos of his Self Isolation sonnet sequence featured by Barnsley Museums and Hear My Voice Barnsley. He also does photography commissions. Most recent is a poetry collaboration with artworker Jane Cornwell: "Wonderland in Alice, plus other ways of seeing", (JCStudio Press, 2021) , sonnet collections: "As Folktaleteller",( ImpSpired, 2022), forthcoming "These Random Acts of Wildness, (Glass Head Press, 2022)

 

Web sites:

https://thewombwellrainbow.wordpress.com/

medium.com/@PaulDragonwolf1

Twitter: @PaulDragonwolf1