‘Because they keep closing the libraries’

(Which was how one woman answered the question: 'Why did you vote Leave?')

so it was never about the question asked,
that question so wide its borders
fell off the edges of the known world
but what it comes down to: a street,
the here of this week fitting into shapes
of carrots, bread (the Co-op list), perhaps
the dentist’s waiting room, another shop
closing, the bus no longer running, the bins
not emptied every week, the light
at the corner out for months. The rain
turning to floods. The hospital
always under threat. PINS
and passwords, the opposite of security,

then

that one comfort withdrawn, the books
dismissed, disposed of. Old friends discarded,
written out of the picture. Emptiness.
The only way to be heard.


D. A. Prince

If you have any comments on this poem, D.A. Prince would be pleased to hear from you.