The plane trees quiet as
a funeral; your lifeless body
posed like a Pompeii corpse
waiting for the ash-coffin.
The rain clouds
wore the priest’s cloth,
cars’ blew jazz for a song
to send you into the ether
while your body reverted
to blueprints, some means
of preventing the mechanical
fault which led to this.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 26, Issue 2.
Christian Ward is a UK-based poet with recent work in Acumen, Dream Catcher, London Grip, The Shore and The Westchester Review. Longlisted for the 2023 National Poetry Competition and shortlisted for the 2024 Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize.See all items about Christian Ward
