people without shadows

in the mid-winter   easterly lying   northern fjord
of Seydisfjordur   the sun never scratches the rim
of the mountains and the people must walk
without shadows   alone under the milkwater sky

shadows without people

in the not so long that people don’t recall
a man made sun blasted shadows from people
leaving them abandoned on the walls and steps
of Hiroshima town   mute in the silence of horror

Nick gets most of his sustenance from double espressos and malt whisky, and after a lifetime of denial is finally willing to admit his poetry habit in public. First published through the Leads to Leeds project run by Helen Mort, his poems have also appeared in The Cunningham Amendment, Pennine Platform and the Waterworks Anthology, and online at New Boots and Pantisocracies and In Between Hangovers.