Backlash
‘There’s a bit of a backlash these days,’
he said, ‘people moving away from the screen
and returning to paper & pen.’
Emergency procedures are in effect
that are aimed as much below the belt
as above the collar.
I work on my voice every day,
sometimes speaking or singing,
other times showing fear or feelings
through a kind of nervous energy
that results in me distracting myself
from intuitive communication.
Walking in a fog of brass instruments
I stumble toward the lighthouse,
blinking out the times and places we used to go,
avoiding anything that might be taken for love.
Rupert Loydell is Senior Lecturer in English with Creative Writing at Falmouth University, and the editor of Stride and With magazines. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Wildlife and Ballads of the Alone both published by Shearsman Books.