somewhere in the countryside by Paul Robert Mullen

 


 

Paul Robert Mullen is a poet, musician and sociable loner from Southport, near Liverpool, U.K.  He is a keen traveller, having lived and worked in China and Australia, and has scaled the entirety of Asia. He has three published poetry collections: curse this blue raincoat (2017), testimony (2018), and 35 (2018).  He also enjoys Leonard Cohen, bass guitar riffs, porridge, paperback books with broken spines, and all things minimalist.

 


 

 

             

             

             

 

  

 

somewhere in the countryside


           

the barge pulled in to dock                  voices

of those on-board joyful.

the clink of glasses                  a toast to returning

friends             sweet memories          life.

 

standing outside the situation            

raising my eyes from wet palms        

the agony of calm                    the stillness

of meadows stretched out over deep

contours          like rugs of olive-rusty browns

            and golds and auburn tan

 

spring is in the air                   cold draught blowing

through the stairwell as i return to

locked doors                a note hanging limp

inside the letter box

 

            you never called me                it says.

 

i rattle keys                 lock the world out

            for another night

malbec wine & single malt                  playing with

the poem under lucid carrot glow

                          listening to Tony Bennett

electric fan buzzing like an inflamed porthole                  

warming me from ankle up.

 

            and i never will         i scribble, sign, slip into an envelope.

 

a lone farmhouse                     just the outline

through the study window

            standing its ground at dusk

 

 

 

Paul Robert Mullen

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