Richard Barrett & Rachel Sills



from Endless / Nameless

4.

“Out of office auto-reply “
The weather window is: open
With on Sunday the hospital
Desktop cat; gold; plastic; waving
Points toward the meridian chart
Then ten minutes of silence
Though conversation will come easier
Here are some magical lines
(Six) on un-orthodox treatment options
cf kite-flying or Skype therapy
Always absent, now, from work
With tea leaves predicting turbulence
Duty free shopping can distract
Visibility good, occasionally poor later


5.

Voices off from another room
On the ring-road round town new traffic calming measures
But this space is all about light
[maybe some apposite Radiohead lyric here?]
Yes, I'm confident in my choice of blue
A colour I find warm and very comforting
From borrowed light (235) to drawing room blue (253)
Via the sky. Last night an airbag saved my life¹
And now — the sense of invincibility
Unlabelled foodstuffs cause me no fear
Biscuit of the week: arrowroot thins
Further — oh something something something . . . Sorry
My personal opinion is not the point
Pass me the water please. Or don't. It's up to you

_________________________

¹Thom Yorke et al — nice one


6.

I had a kitchen; I have a kitchen; I’ll be having a kitchen
A direct translation from the German
I write to the north always; and you know what that means
A whole industry built on snow
A less dissonant soundtrack imagined
Where a pattern is apparent between tracks
A "source" claimed yesterday (come lunch tomorrow: discredited)
This is where the icebreakers come in
At the butty van, mornings, we spend £1.20
Team members needed: sandwich artists
Now a new café has opened just down the road
I am waiting for a stroke of luck
Yes it aches; my back. My ears also
Brace yourselves


7.

With the door open, or not open
Doctor. I feel like a deck-chair
78% of 193 women agree
Don’t argue with our exit poll
The truth is desirable but not essential
This line was plagiarized
I wandered lonely as a cloud
To the building society; Market Street
Today's mood is: bullish
I spit in the sea; the sea level rises
"They called me the pedalo girl"
From Naomi Campbell's novel Swan
A work with its own depths
So much so I wore pyjamas


8.

Please could you repeat that?
The waves wash, then the waves wash
With eyes to binoculars all afternoon he'd sit
In a kind of visionary state
A landmark. Do you know the future
Yes, we're really going to have THAT conversation
I am assailed by memory
Oh this headache
Daily, fresh air. That's all I want
That, and three hotels on Park Lane
Morecambe; with Richard; a good afternoon
Knitting him a sock at the bay
Then losing at monopoly. On purpose it seemed
Some things you never forget

Richard Barrett lives and works in Salford. He is the author of several chapbooks and his second full length collection Free is forthcoming from Blart Books. Besides these publications his work has appeared in a number of anthologies; most recently the Philip Davenport edited The Dark Would. Richard has been invited to read his work out at numerous events across the UK. He is the founder and editor of the innovative poetry press Department and a co-organiser of the North West based reading series Peter Barlow's Cigarette. His Archive of the Now page can be found at http://www.archiveofthenow.org/authors/?i=151.

Rachel Sills lives in Manchester. She has a PhD on Frank O'Hara's poetry, and has had poems published in Stand magazine. She is a co-organiser of the North West based reading series Peter Barlow's Cigarette.
 
 
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