Rental Contract
I know my neighbours by their walk.
Our walls are thin. A sort of string
between two cans, our stack of floors.
I hold it to my ear. It sings.
The game is fair. My own voice fits
inside a listening can. I track
my whole life, following the twitch
of a neighbour’s seismograph.
My private rage, the shaken bed,
the things that no one else must know
write through the building and are read
as headlines on the floor below,
so when you meet me at the bend
of pavement, neighbour, kill the talk.
Our questions have their answers, friend,
in the closeness of the walls.
Beautiful Day & Dog Rose
dog rose beautiful,
beautiful day
pink whorl of petals
like the spinning rotors
of an Apache AH Mk. 1
ah pink whorl of petals
and the blue blue sky
and the stamens weeping
gathered as at a school crater
machinery of the dog rose
Glock 19 semi-automatic 9×19
parabellum pink
wired to a hedge
this pink day
in blue summer
dog rose please
please stay a dog
rose, please
please stay as you are
JAMES APPLEBY‘s original poetry is published in The London Magazine, his translations in Asymptote, and his upcoming debut pamphlet, Spurious Language, was commended in the 2024 International Book & Pamphlet Competition. Born in Manchester in 1993, he is now editor of Interpret, Scotland’s magazine of international writing.
Read more by James Appleby
Author’s Website
Poems in The London Magazine
Poem in The Best American Poetry anthology (2024)
Poem in La Piccioletta Barca