A Life
Where are the aunts
of yesteryear?
Where are the moles
under Granny’s lawn?
Where are the pickled
frogs and locusts?
Where are the lizards, where the kiss
on the banks of the Moselle?
Where is the Wall
behind the Brandenburg Gate?
Where is the office shuttlecock?
Where is the dive
with pictures of the Pistols
and all urinals bust?
Where is the ice,
the arm in plaster?
Where is the Souk
and the Citadel?
Where are the wedding guests?
Where is the invisible boss?
Where is the eucalyptus
reaching to the sky?
Where are Father’s bicycles?
Dennis Tomlinson lives in London and has been published in many magazines and on websites. His most recent book publications are Ornaments (Paekakariki Press, 2022) and, as co-editor, Hans Sahl in Translation (Independent Publishing Network, 2023).