Siren by Mark Totterdell

 

 


 

Mark Totterdell’s poems have appeared widely in magazines including Agenda, Envoi, Magma, The Rialto and Stand, and have won competitions. His collections are This Patter of Traces (Oversteps Books, 2014) and Mapping (Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2018).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Siren 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though I never employed him

to soundtrack my dreams,

this morning’s early blackbird

is back on his woodwind,

those expert glissandos,

the rises, the trills and chirrs.

 

And  now he’s off on his

police siren impression,

not the modern wails and yelps and phasers

you might think he’d go for,

but the proper old-time two-note

‘nee-naw nee-naw nee-naw’,

as if he’s been watching those cop shows

full of corruptions and easy deaths

from decades before he was even an egg.

 

 

Mark Totterdell

 

 

         

Frogs by Mark Totterdell

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