Little Monuments
my brain is no longer full of pound coins
paperbacks with my name on rainbow flags
tax bills Instagram followers my brain
is now Dad’s pierced left ear lobe that I touched
for first and last time in chapel of rest
to see this monument never noticed
before to recall its exact thickness
precise pinkness the depth of the puncture
James McDermott’s poetry collections include Manatomy (Burning Eye; longlisted for Polari’s First Book Prize 2021) and Wild Life (forthcoming from Nine Arches). Their pamphlets include Erased (Polari Press) and Green Apple Red (Broken Sleep Books). James’s poems have been published in various magazines including Poetry Wales, The North, Butcher’s Dog, Popshot Quarterly and Fourteen Poems.