East Wind
Brings
the arctic syllables of geese and swans,
polishes
the Milky Way, scours the beaches clean
of
dried starfish, dogfish eggs and plastic bags,
comes
stinking of tundra and tyranny,
blows
strands of hair from drowned girls
round
the church steeples, the hotel flagpoles,
shrivels
the last scraps of juice in the trees,
dries
to the pale grey of the sky the boards
of
the fishermen's huts, cracks their knuckles
open,
comes laden with lost ideas, shouts
down
empty high streets, bends shop windows,
leans
on the backs of mourners above open
graves, dries their tears to crusts of salt.
Stephen
Devereux is a poet, essayist, short story writer and scriptwriter. He has work
published in magazines/on websites in the UK, Ireland, Europe, the USA and
Australia. He lives and works in Liverpool.
