Biography
When mum was a girl she had no shoes:
sprinting through stubble bloodied her toes.
Tell me a story that closes in sleep
A playground Howitzer tested the class:
Answer this question – the answer is Yes.
Tell me a story that closes in sleep
Persona non grata, sister Gretel,
turned informer to the Deutscher Mädel.
Tell me a story that closes in sleep
Her teacher was stubborn, her teacher was brave:
Strangers with rifles drove him away.
Tell me a story that closes in sleep
Blackout watched her off the wharf:
a Luftwaffenhelfer heard the splash.
Tell me a story that closes in sleep
The displaced fled as the train brakes shrieked:
a Spitfire straffed – she hid under her seat.
Tell me a story that closes in sleep
Brother-in-law whistling home on his bike:
the partisan’s piano wire tuned his neck.
Tell me a story that closes in sleep
Sawdust knudel and sawdust wurst
unless employed in the British mess.
Tell me a story that closes in sleep
Where is a man with black hair,
those panda-black sockets, that fear?
Tell me a story that closes in sleep
The gas fire stiffles; photographs weep.
Tell me, Oh tell me a story that closes with sleep.
Arthur Haswell is of Austrian/Scottish descent. His poetry has been published variously, recently in The North, Iota, and Iron’s Pieces From Eight anthology. He graduated from Northumbria University’s
Creative Writing MA with a distinction and Blackwell Prize.