Alun Robert was born in Scotland of Irish ancestry. He is a prolific creator of lyrical verse. Of late, he has achieved success in poetry competitions and featured in international literary magazines, anthologies and on the web.
No Return To Varoşa
Varoşa : once glamorous holiday resort now at the eastern extremity
of the Cyprus Forbidden Zone guarded by the United Nations
Yasak Bölge Girilmez : Forbidden Zone created after the
1974 division of Cyprus into Turkish & Greek sectors
Behind rusting barbed wire
graffitied corrugated iron
with Yasak Bölge Girilmez
signs of blood scarlet
read by diasporics longing
hoping, dreaming
Their Wait
while just out of sight
armed guards goosestep
up from the twinkling Med
with kilometers of empty beaches
engaging the prom
to The Jungle
concrete, imposing
multiple floors high crumbling
overgrown with verdant asps
strewn with sand grains massed
populated by stray mongrels
chasing feral Van cats
en pursuit of vermin
the rattus rattus of death
but devoid of turista
in kafe, bistro, ôtel
now as dark through the day
as from crepuscular to dawn
where Bardot, Taylor, Welch
Their Set
once smouldered with chic
blinded by faux-light, while
a sylvia melanothorax warbles
as ripe effluent stinks
almost half a century gone
yet not a step closer.
Alun Robert
