Neil Fulwood- Three Poems

Falkirk Wheel

  

On a clear day you can see half

of central Scotland, says the guide –

 

today it’s barely half an inch,

the hammerhead shape of the Wheel

 

a shower-curtain silhouette,

its centrifugal rotation

 

slow and silent, ghosted by fog,

as if rearing up from legend.

 

 

Anxiety Attack

 

Panic is always

close, a lurker in the wings

waiting for its cue;

 

easy to summon

as a waiter or taxi –

easier: panic

 

isn’t put out by

snapped fingers or terse gestures,

theatrical coughs.

 

Panic’s suave, well-groomed;

there for you before you’ve asked.

Dinner jacket, tie,

 

crisp white linen draped

on an arm set-square angled,

voice a dark murmur

 

traversing the nerves,

the veins, patterning itself

into the pauses

 

between breaths, heartbeats,

the steady tic of the pulse.

Panic’s in control

 

before you’ve even

reached for the first of the day.

Panic knows what’s best.

Part

 

     Just because you do not take an interest in politics

     does not mean politics will not take an interest in you.

     - PERICLES

 

     Es ist mein teil – nein!

     - RAMMSTEIN

 

 

My part was when I looked away.

My part was when my tongue ceased to function,

my conscience to even deserve the name.

 

My part: to embrace distraction.

My part: to sniff out and succumb to

the lure of the lowest common whatever.

 

My part was to allow things to happen.

My part was to sidestep involvement.

My part was to cultivate disinterest.

 

My part: complacency and freeview channels.

My part: I’m all right Jack, you know the rest.

My part: share or like if you couldn’t care less.

 

My part is a symphony in the key of nothing.

My part is a canvas by an underpainter.

My part’s what the delete key leaves behind.



Neil Fulwood was born in Nottingham in 1972 and has been keeping the city's pubs in business since 1990. His poetry has appeared in The Bitchin' Kitsch, Rat's Ass Review, Black Mirror Magazine, UFO Gigolo and Horror Sleaze Trash. He is the co-editor, with David Sillitoe of the anthology More Raw Material: work inspired by Alan Sillitoe (Lucifer Press, 2015).