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black skeleton keys
Poetry

Once it took a

By Paul Brookes
Poetry

Once it took a

By Paul Brookes

regular twelve-hour shift walk with a clock
in Grimethorpe as security guard round N.U.M. remains, to find key, fit clock,
walk ripped floor tiles, dust, unused coal mounds,

collect evidence to record time, find
key, account for my existence, set
of other keys echoing their jangle, mined
empty spaces unlock from outset,

a wasteland of rooms without walls, ceilings, see a cold October sky stars abuzz,
a coke plant behind a steel fence, workings,
a head of grind industrial lights scuzz.

Nothing to do but waste time till time
to return, hand keys over till next time.

6 comments
6 Comments
Selected by Nolcha FoxImage Silas Köhler

Published in Open Arts Forum on .

Selected by Nolcha Fox·
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Paul Brookes

Paul Brookes

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 debut chapbook: The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). Collections: A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), As Folk Over Yonder (Afterworld Books, 2019). A poetry collaboration with artist Jane Cornwell resulted in "Wonderland in Alice, plus other ways of seeing", (JC Studio Press, 2021). The beginning of the "Ganders" septology, whose other books are: "As Folktaleteller" (ImpSpired, 2022), "These Random Acts of Wildness, (Glass Head Press, 2023), "Othernesses", (JC Studio Press, 2023), Wolf Eye (Red Ceilings Press, 2023), Wolf Eye Territory (ImpSpired, 2024), Ever Striding Edge (Dark Winter Press, 2024). "The Dude Work," (Sherwood Press, 2024). Не has 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.

Recently his work has been broadcast on BBC Radio Sheffield. He does not believe in competitions, but has been nominated for the Rhysling Prize, and thrice for the Pushcart Prize. Recently, guest edited for Setumag "Some British Working Class Poets" for a second year.

He edits The Wombwell Rainbow Interviews and a new Substack webzine, The Starbeck Orion.

https://thewombwellrainbow.wordpress.com

https://substack.com/The Starbeck Orion | Substack

More by Paul Brookes →