Graham Burchell

FAIRY TALE

I can scare children As the Victorians aimed to do Even on an August beach Tell a fairy tale One woven more cruel Than castles turned to sand and Washed into oblivion By the

Three notes I allowed Aloud to sum the August Beachiness of Herring gull Railway pigeon Otherwise birdless Fishless conjoin – Rust cliff and water world Beneath reflected sky; That order/disorder/chaos Of iron colony salinity

YARNER

A place of dryad and hamadryad, There are eyes here by the million. Many divert to watch me. Threatened, They pause, cut short their song, stop Feeding, mating, working the cycle Of dispersion, growth

LAST SUPPER

Botticelli grinned With egg tempera congealed At the hinge of his lips Velasquez licked Shine from an aubergine blackened In the shadows Vermeer picked Pearls from a jar labelled ‘silverskin onions’ Turner stirred Through

BOIREANN

They are both old Boireann and her She wants to remain in the car Hunched Regarding the other Through the smear of a window The intrusion of a wing mirror mars A romance of