‘Petrus’ and other poems by Tom Chivers
PETRUS
How can I begin to speak of change, my love,
who lives in the smallest of time.
We cannot see beyond the next financial year.
I have no recollection of an iceberg,
though I do recall the plastic bag discarded on the lawn
seen through a window as we tried to speak of change
or how we might begin. Its shape was not unlike an iceberg’s.
For frosty things I say a prayer like a lock.
– Tom Chivers
Tom Chivers is reading with Isobel Dixon, Claire Crowther, Andrew Philip and Rob A. Mackenzie on Wednesday 19 August at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 8-10pm. More details here.