Angel of Fear
He turns up at night,
when clocks stop,
parading his wings
like a white peacock.
Shh! I say, It’s late
and I cannot sleep.
But he is just there
spinning the News.
He does not drink,
puffs menthols sadly
and scuffles around like
an unsettled duck.
I want to scream,
fold up his pennons
and dispatch him home
but he’s too shrewd.
Poetry is easy to write
but onerous to master.
You’re one step, he says,
from playing the fool.
When he finally goes
I line-up my pens,
I string my guitars,
and replay his voice;
I remember then
what angels are for.
They trick our fiends
into wrestling the void.
Gabriel Moreno was born in Gibraltar in 1977. Graduated in Philosophy and Hispanic Studies at the University of Hull, Yorkshire, UK (1995-1999). Doctorate in Hispanic Literature at the University of Barcelona (2002-2007). Published works in Spanish include, Londres y el susurro de las amapolas,Omicrón (2007), Cartas a Miranda (2008) and Identidad y Deseo (2010). Works in English include The Hollow Tortoise, (2012) and Nights in Mesogeois, Annexe (2013), The Moon and the Sparrow, (2015), The Passer-by (2019).