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.