Black on Black
Black is the colour inside black light on
blackened brick and slats coaldust and
creosote those sightless eyes black as
his coalman’s vest and grimy coalbent
back
deep in a shed where he stacks cold stone
by the sack by imperial coalblack ton.
Ashcold in the shapeless dawn a father
gathers kindling and coal enough to light
a childhood the blaze and dullred
glow dark soot of a distant black hole.
Retired and living in Orkney, Huw Gwynn-Jones’ work has appeared in Shearsman, Acumen, Tears in the Fence, Ink Sweat & Tears, Stand and Lighthouse. His debut pamphlet The Art of Counting Stars was published in 2021.