Kate Bingham
The Exercise
Something to talk about besides the rain
at Saturday breakfast, blackbirds dancing
on the colonel my father-in-law’s fresh stripes
as he inspects the North Devon Journal
Special Operation Souvenir.
Bacon and eggs. A break in the clouds
and people with mars bars and binoculars
invade the headland. The birdwatchers
have flown away. For every downpour
Baggy Point blossoms again with golf brollies.
Kids get trench-foot playing SAS in the gorse,
pass on vocabulary like a summer cold
until the campsites buzz with expertise.
Soldiers mess up the beach and the sand dunes.
Battle-ships manoevre in the bay.
I leave my clothes in the car
and run through August bank holiday drizzle
to swim with them in water warm and grey
and mineral with the thrill of war.
at Saturday breakfast, blackbirds dancing
on the colonel my father-in-law’s fresh stripes
as he inspects the North Devon Journal
Special Operation Souvenir.
Bacon and eggs. A break in the clouds
and people with mars bars and binoculars
invade the headland. The birdwatchers
have flown away. For every downpour
Baggy Point blossoms again with golf brollies.
Kids get trench-foot playing SAS in the gorse,
pass on vocabulary like a summer cold
until the campsites buzz with expertise.
Soldiers mess up the beach and the sand dunes.
Battle-ships manoevre in the bay.
I leave my clothes in the car
and run through August bank holiday drizzle
to swim with them in water warm and grey
and mineral with the thrill of war.
Kate Bingham’s first collection was Cohabitation (Seren). A second is due from Seren in 2005.
Page(s) 7
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The