The top twenty poems from Poetry Space Competition 2013 chosen by Martyn Crucefix. Poems by Dorothy Baird, Ama Bolton, Pat Borthwick, David Clarke, Rachael Clyne, Margaret Eddershaw,Wendy French, Eileen Carney Hulme, David C. Johnson, Susan Latimer, Kaye Lee, Afric McGlinchey, Gwen Seabourne,Robin Muers, Anthony Watts and Janice Windle.
Zoom
[i.m. Sgt John Lansdell, shot down in his Hurricane on 17th September 1940]
Somewhere, some distant relative
is nurturing her family tree
with ‘information’ (‘photos would be brilliant!’)
and so we get the box out of the loft
and I am volunteered to scan
the contents of this dusty envelope.
Here’s the Loughborough College Group (John Lansdell
second row, end, right) and here
College Sunday 1936:
a casual group of friends taking the air
in mortar boards and gowns (I wonder
if they’re worn with pride, or does he think
he looks a twerp? The faint smile tells us nothing.)
Bunny, Self & Norman on the promenade…
and here’s another – three men in a boat,
oars stowed, swigging from the bottle: lads…
and these the chaps in ‘D’ Flight: Freddie Poulter,
Johnny White, Self, Sticky Glew…
I’m focussing on ‘Self’ (that’s my name too),
stroking the touchpad, dragging him centre stage
(exit Sticky Glew screen right) and now
the cursor has him in its sights and…Zoom!
Enlargement fails to show me who he was:
it only amplifies the blur of years
that steals away his image – shows instead
the pixelated abstract of a man – then
nothing recognisable as human.
© Anthony Watts
1st Prize
ISBN: 978-1-909404-10-6 £5 Stapled 32 page booklet.
