Read More: A brief interview with Alan Hill
The Night of My Conception
It was during Beatlemania, my parents
already old
pre rock n roll, pre sex
caught
in the leg snare of a long finished war
in the eye line, of the teen Canadian pilots
that they had watched as children
folding their Spitfires into nothingness.
My parents love was giggling and darkness
a slipping from Brylcreem, silk and tweed
bomb shelter, love shelter
to birth me underground
the earth shaking over me
dust sprinkling down as I came complete.
In snickering and blushes I appeared
found another half
held on for dear life, for a life
apologetic in my being
always surprised by my mother’s love.
M&M’s
Made for war, to not melt under fire
to keep your fingers clean in battle
Forrest Mars SNR
saw something like them in Spain
in civil war, when the bullets ran out
candy thrown at Franco’s tanks.
in 1941
American GIs packed them out
to fight the Japanese.
Officially now M&M’s, branded
conscripted, pure red white and blue.
On the Beach at Iwo Jima, Okinawa
cool doses of desire
when the food had gone, bottles run dry
to be consumed by the handful
at the fixing of bayonets.
A little later
the Enola Gay, coasted over Hiroshima.
Pilot Paul Tibbets Junior
eviscerated a packet with his teeth
with his pinkie
maneuvered the sugar pellets, into
his left palm.
When he had finished eating, he
pulled the bomb release
noticed his hands
admired how spotless they were.
Heat Wave
Every Window forced open
a tired breeze stretchered in
on the back of a July night.
How long it had been since rain.
The garden, stained by drought
lay quiet.
My wife and I
ferried bath water out to the flowers […]
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Alan Hill has been previously published in North America in CV2, Canadian Literature, Vancouver Review, Antigonish Review, Sub-Terrain, Poetry is Dead, Quills, Impressment Gang, Cascadia Review, Reunion- The Dallas Review and in a number of anthologies and in the United Kingdom in South, The Wolf, Brittle Star and Turbulence. His second full collection, The Broken Word (Silver-Bow Press), was published in mid 2013. He is a regular reader of poetry at readings in Vancouver and has appeared at both ‘Word on The Street’ and ‘Summer Dreams’ literary festivals.
Read More: A brief interview with Alan Hill