Matthew Paul: Poetry & Stuff

In the last issue of The North, jampacked as ever with terrific poems and features, my poem ‘The Blue Bridge’ was included but got slightly mangled in the typesetting process, so I’m putting it here.

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The Blue Bridge

A truss bridge, to be technical;
in Knight’s Park, the sauciest
part of Kingston, at its patchwork
confluence with Surbiton.

The chords of either arch
present a tempting post-pub dare:
inches narrow;
double-decker height
above the chalkstream shallows
of the Hogsmill’s grunt
towards Old Father Thames’s
indifferent embrace.

My friend Paloma insists on this:
that after the Sham 69 gig’s
brutal aggro,
she watched her boiler-suited
Kinetic Sculpture lecturer
pigeon-step halfway,
stumble–tumble

and land midriver
on the platform heels
of his steel-toecap boots.