Four Poems by Mark Roberts

 

cutting the grass 

 

 

the old man had taken to mowing the concrete  

at the front of his building with an old two-stroke mower 

he used an old leather strap to wrap around the starter   

pulling it slowly it started first time/every time  

 

someone called the police  

complaining about the noise  

& that there was no grass  

to cut on the concrete path  

he told them that he remembered  

where the grass had been  

 

they took away his mower  

within days  

the first green shoots  

appeared through cracks in the concrete 

 

 

 

the other city 

 

 

the path to the city 

is blocked by a locked door 

& the key is in the pocket  

of your other coat  

 

never mind  

there are things  

to do & you know  

they really won’t miss you  

though you do feel a pang  

when you hear the sound of a train 

& know you won’t be home tonight 

 

returning the next morning 

you find the door forced 

& the city beyond it in ruins 

ashes line streets 

dust hangs in the air 

silence hints 

at a lack of tomorrows 

 

 

 

consolidation  

 

 

disembodied voices  

hover over polished laminate     

discussions of options  

& radical measures 

to increase productivity 

 

I hear everything  

Monica losing her house  

Bruce his marriage   

 

you are funnelled  

to a cloud and stored  

left with possibilities  

but only one outcome 

 

 

Northern Stone 

 

Quick! 

Split the stone before  

we are all crushed. 

 

The old man is at it again, 

locked away he rants like a bull 

mumbling Italian, shouting Greek, swearing English. 

Dreams of Rapallo and jackbooted order. 

 

The infidels are driven out. 

Finding sanctuary  

on barren mountain tops 

surviving on melted snow 

and the decaying fragments of wise minds. 

 

Like a failed god to raise a storm  

extracting the last droplets of hatred. 

Let him dream of cut stone 

and large monuments in the north.

Mark Roberts is a writer, critic and publisher living on unceded Darug and Gundungurra country (Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia). He is founder and co-editor of Rochford Street Review (https://rochfordstreetreview.com/) and the occasional print journal P76. His latest collection, The Office of Literary Endeavours, will be published by 5 Islands Press in 2025.