The air is not itself today;
it can no longer rest. The last
free molecule has just been put to use.

Our alpha-waves are butterfly-brained.
Sleep, in any normal sense,
has not been possible here for months.

I carry an egg for safety now.
I came too close the other day:
it cooked in my pocket, good enough to eat.

 

 

 

 

Gregory Leadbetter was born in Stourbridge in 1975. Two of his poems were commended in the 2004 Arvon Competition. He writes for the BBC radio drama Silver Street and is researching for a PhD on Coleridge.


©Copyright of this poem remains with the poet: please do not download or republish without permission.

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