War

25/05/11

War by Julian Colton

Julian Colton, born in Manchester and a SPEN member, has lived in Scotland for twenty years. He has had three collections of poetry published including Something for the Weekend (Scottish Borders Council, 2001) Two Che Guevaras (SBC, 2007) and Everyman Street (Smokestack Publishing, 2009) In 2008/9 he was CREATE Writer in Residence for Dumfries and Galloway. He teaches poetry in schools, most recently as part of the Natural Identity project for the Tolbooth Gallery in Stirling. In 2002 his poem pamphlet DH Lawrence was a shortlisted runner-up for the Callum MacDonald poetry pamphlet prize. He lives in Selkirk and co-edits The Eildon Tree.

War

On a loop Snow is falling all around

The credit crunch computer superstore

Amid artificial warmth

Over eager assistants keen to please

Smatter of software shoppers

Information Highway down to a crawl

Laptops and printers, walls of flat screens

Sky and the BBC focused on the weather

Report delayed trams and trains

Disappointment of reality show winner

Thwarted chart top ambition.

Cut into this, just for a few seconds

Draped in the bleak Union flag

A name I will later Google

Coffins return to Wootton Bassett

Full stop.
 

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