Something about this
Something about arriving somewhere new
just as afternoon is leaving
something about parking
in the market square set out
with tubs of civic planting
and stepping out across the space
looking for the narrow lane
frothed with late nasturtiums
like a bale of silk unravelling
as the street-lights come on
something about the yellow
in the little panes of glass
something about an open door
a half a dozen bearded men in sweaters
lifting beers high across the room
between the tables and the chairs
something about the gathering
the softening the spotlight
the woman in black
to check the microphone
a brief community in laughter
flashing bright and wild awhile
and something about leaving in the dark
the car already frosting
something about the road
tunnelling through the night trees
the windows down
to let the scent of nettles in
astringent hawthorn bracket fungus
smells like yeast like baking bread
something about a barn owl
on a fence-post like a memory
pasted in an album long ago
something about this
something about this
that makes me glance across the car
to check I wasn’t wrong
about your absence.
Stephen Keeler is a widely-published multi award-winning poet and memoirist. His collection They Spoke No English is published by Nine Pens Press. His memoir 50 Words for Love in Swedish by Archetype Books. He has held writing residences in Grez-sur- Loing, France, and Skara, in Sweden. He lives in a former chocolate factory, in York.