DayGlo
after Ecclesiasticus 44.1

Let us now praise hi-vis men
who gather together
round a pothole, filling the gap
with their sticky black remedy.

Honour the yellow-gilet WPC
who knows how to listen,
called to a bus stop
just in time by a lost girl.

Let’s not forget Poppy the neon
lollypop operative,
nor the parakeet-bright
sanitary goods delivery crew.

Tell the DayGlo doozers
how they light our mornings,
gleaming waterproof orange
through the gloom.

Let’s almost die for love
of the one at the very top
of a crane at the boatyard,
sketching an arc in the sky

when his lime green forearm,
matchstick-delicate
from down here, tilts
a lever, sends a loaded pallet

swinging out above the jetty,
calms it to a standstill,
winches it down slo-mo, exactly
where it needs to go.

Alex Josephy lives and writes in Sussex and Italy. Her pamphlet Again Behold the Stars, was a Cinnamon Press award winner 2023. Her third full collection, A Little Bridge,  was published by Pindrop Press in 2025. www.alexjosephy.net