Long Haul
In Buenos Aires, the high-rises
are built with stacks of premium steak,
while in Patagonia, the killer whales
like to beach themselves, Tuesdays
at half-past four in the afternoon
to play a game of pat-a-cake.
Bake me a cake, as slow as you can,
take your time, let me sit and
watch you again, dusted and mixing
in your blue-and-white striped
linen apron, looking the part
as you reach over in oven gloves.
Make it slow food, a slow cake,
one you can turn out and leave
long enough to cool, so when it’s time,
we can eat a fat slice (no care for crumbs)
and talk up a trip – not to Argentina,
some place closer, cheaper, quick.
Paul Stephenson has three poetry pamphlets: Those People (Smith/Doorstop, 2015), which won the Poetry Business pamphlet competition; The Days that Followed Paris (HappenStance, 2016), written after the November 2015 terrorist attacks; and Selfie with Waterlilies (Paper Swans Press, 2017). He helps curate Poetry in Aldeburgh. His debut collection will be published by Carcanet in summer 2023. You can find his website here, or on social media at Instagram @paulstep456 and on Twitter: @stephenson_pj