Guy Russell was born in Chatham, UK, and has been a holiday courier, purchasing clerk, media analyst and fan-heater production operative. He currently works in Milton Keynes for the Open University. Stories in Somewhere This Way (Fiction Desk), Brace (Comma Press), To Hull And Back 2018, Madame Morte (Black Shuck), Liars League and elsewhere. Poems in Troubles Swapped For Something Fresh (Salt), The Iron Book of New Humorous Verse (Iron), The Rialto, The Interpreter’s House and elsewhere. He reviews sometimes for Tears in the Fence.
A New Superstore
The grass on the horses’ field has grown
Into thirty-one high-quality homes.
New cul-de-sacs are budding from the lane.
The bypass spawns another bypass. Soon
A superstore will spring. It’s due for planting:
That last wasted thumb of woodland
Will feed us all for miles around.
I have this vision of us lamb-hunting.
Digging for frozen carrots. Picking fruit.
Stuck at the end of a line for a trout.
Shepherding our kids after dark
Across the rich black pasture of its car park.
Guy Russell