The Day his Father Left
He had to write about yesterday. How could he,
given what had happened? And how was it possible
to write about anything else? His classmates’ pens
were already moving, writing about the ordinary.
His pen was still. He looked down at it,
like an animal he’d never yet encountered,
an animal that could do anything with one swish
of its tail. An animal that was nothing to do with him.
And also everything. Then the pen began to move.
It could say exactly what it wanted so it wrote
about his father’s birthday, the movie,
the chocolate cake, the blowing out of candles.
Carole Bromley lives in York. Winner of 2019 Hamish Canham Award, she has a new collection due out from Valley Press in 2020 and a pamphlet, Sodium 136, is published by Calder Valley Poetry this month. Website: www.carolebromleypoetry.co.uk Twitter @CaroleBromley1