All I Could Steal
From Bidston
to Belfast
I traced the line of you:
Said my goodbyes
despite the gale,
imagined your head, bobbing with
the current
through secret
shippingforecast zones
as my heart grabbed at imaginary
cordage
that trailed helplessly
through the moss-
felt the tome of the sea
as it lashed its pages
against my carbine.
I thought that I might cry then,
suddenly,
in the salt wind
and so broke the seal on a bottle of
Jeremiah
to drown the lump
in my throat.
Drunk, I stumbled home through
Cammell Laird’s
and felt spite
stirring in the spine
of my tongue-
I taunted all the ghosts, and sang
to them:
‘When the big ship sails on the alley-
alley-o…….’
Nick Power has recently had perfect-bound book Small Town Chase published by erbacce-press, and is in the process of writing a new collection. He has had poems published at M58, erbacce-press, The Camel Saloon, Boscome Revolution and Jarg Magazine.
He has worked with actors such as Maxine Peake and John Simm, and recorded their readings of poems from Small Town Chase. They are available to listen to here: https://soundcloud.com/nickpowerpoetry