Poem
Mandy Coe
Practicing Emptiness at Calais
Practicing Emptiness at Calais
Practicing Emptiness at Calais
Through shanty-towns of canvas and plasticlorries queue. Cargo of the world
behind taught straps and bolted doors.
In dreams that stink of diesel,
tailgates tumble open,
loved ones inside beckoning, come, come.
This grey channel of sea is so narrow
one scar-faced boy shrugged off his leather jacket
saying that he would rather walk.
On flattened cardboard boxes
the schematics of airbrakes and exhausts
are mapped. Spaces measured, air holes, marked.
Emptiness must be mastered
So detection-dogs will pass,
tails wagging – carbon monoxide detectors
will read, all clear.
Those who name villages and cousins,
or talk in their sleep of soldiers and bombs
make the pine-tree air-fresheners swing.
In the stillness of motorway car parks,
they make St. Christopher catch the light.
© 2015, Mandy Coe
Mandy Coe
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1957)
Mandy Coe is the author of six books: four collections of prize-winning poetry, one graphic novel and one non-fiction book Our Thoughts Are Bees (co-written with poet Jean Sprackland), on working with writers and schools. She is a staunch educationalist and believes that ‘Poetry for children brings literature to life and into our lives in a way no other genre can.’
Poems
Poems of Mandy Coe
Close
Practicing Emptiness at Calais
Through shanty-towns of canvas and plasticlorries queue. Cargo of the world
behind taught straps and bolted doors.
In dreams that stink of diesel,
tailgates tumble open,
loved ones inside beckoning, come, come.
This grey channel of sea is so narrow
one scar-faced boy shrugged off his leather jacket
saying that he would rather walk.
On flattened cardboard boxes
the schematics of airbrakes and exhausts
are mapped. Spaces measured, air holes, marked.
Emptiness must be mastered
So detection-dogs will pass,
tails wagging – carbon monoxide detectors
will read, all clear.
Those who name villages and cousins,
or talk in their sleep of soldiers and bombs
make the pine-tree air-fresheners swing.
In the stillness of motorway car parks,
they make St. Christopher catch the light.
Practicing Emptiness at Calais
Sponsors
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère