Embedded Files
A Trough
As well as Eno an evergreen suggestion
of wind-chimes
over water Takashi
Kokubo or
extraterrestrial
trickle
of Ken-ichiro
Isoda we
listen to
our playlists
listening
to us
give thanks to
the algorithm as much
for Japanese ambience
as for these
subaqueous
bedtimes: whales
and dolphins preferred by F
while D falls asleep
amidst crashing rain
or overflowing drains
or lighthouse encrypting a thunderstorm
one lamp of F’s put off
the other too hot diffuse purple
he wants a second lamp
to be brighter yet
more in the background
dimming lights in the kitchen also
I work late click “Nighthawks”
thumbnail: “oldies sitting
in a café as the rain falls”
gramophone songs coursing
from a damaged gutter and reflect
on the sting
of a notification
some noises are whiter than others:
“when you come to bed
will you bring me a trough a trough
for old time’s sake?”
10/4/2024
John Redmond is a native of Dublin living in North Yorkshire and works as a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Liverpool. He has published three collections of poetry with Carcanet Press, the latest being The Alexandra Sequence. He has occasionally reviewed poetry for the LRB, the TLS, The Irish Times and The Guardian.
Copyright © 2024 by John Redmond, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of Copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author
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