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