Open Arts Forum
Search
Forum search is private. Join free or sign in to search and view forum results. Join free · Sign in
Forum search results are visible only to registered, signed-in members.
Start typing to search OAF.
Opens in a new tab
V1 flying bomb falls on dwelling houses and shops somewhere in Southern England. Rescue work and fire fighting scenes. August 1944 P009483 (Photo by WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)
Poetry

so memo gone around

By Paul Brookes
Poetry

so memo gone around

By Paul Brookes

A bigger vase so she can flourish again.
Pastimes are awaiting reopening
Folk like me who have no skin in the game.
Signs from decades gone, keep calm and shopping.

What games do kids play in a live warzone?
My eyes are dim, I cannot see. My specs
blasted smashed in front of me. Drones, drones, drone
bombs drop drop like nan’s doodlebug wrecks.

“It’s been fliipped on its head.” she says
“It’s harming everybody else.” Pastimes
are becoming present times and fits
even future times. Re-opening prime

war memories in old folk, veterans.
Those who had skin in the game, open wounds. 
 

12 comments
12 Comments
Selected by Raymond HuffmanImage Getty Images; V1 flying bombs fall on dwelling houses and shops in Southern England, 1944

Published in Open Arts Forum on .

Selected by Raymond Huffman·
150
views
AuthorArtistPhotographerMusician

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 →