Poems

Question 1

Basking shark

Answer 1

‘Roomsized monster with a matchbox brain’
‘So who’s the monster?’
‘He displaced more than just water.’
‘Slounge out of the sea’

Question 2

Assisi

Answer 2

‘who had passed/ the ruined temple outside’
‘Sat,slumped like a half-filled sack’
‘Three tiers of churches built/ in honour of st Francis’
‘I understood / the explanation and / the cleverness.’

Question 3

Visiting Hour

Answer 3

‘The hospital smell combs my nostrils’
‘I will not feel, I will not / feel,’
‘So much pain, so / many deaths, their eyes / still clear after / so many farewells.’
‘A withered hand / trembles on its stalk.’
‘the distance of pain that neither she nor I / can cross.’

Question 4

Brooklyn cop

Answer 4

‘Built like a gorilla nut less timid’
‘He hoped it, he truly hoped it.’
‘Should the tissue tear,’
‘And who would be who have to be his victims?’

Question 5

Hotel room 12th floor

Answer 5

‘Shot at by a million lit windows’
‘Wildest of war whoops continually ululating through / the glittering canyons’
‘Blood/ glazed on the sidewalk’
‘And no stockades/ can keep the midnight out.’

Question 6

Aunt Julia

Answer 6

‘So many questions / unanswered.’
‘Getting angry, getting angry’
‘Water flouncing’
‘Stained with peat’