Katherine Gallagher

London, UK

Australian-born, widely-published London-based poet, Katherine Gallagher’s most recent collection is Acres of Light (Arc Publications, 2016) following her Carnival Edge: New & Selected Poems (Arc, 2010). ‘Gallagher is a poet of the eye, the rainbow and of all the feeling senses’ (Penelope Shuttle). www.katherine-gallagher.com

Poem completed on 22^nd May, 2020

Climates

            I

                        Wind traces silences

on drying plains

Nearby a mountain

melts on its rib of earth

              creates lakes of fire

            Villagers watch the rumpled

                        lava lifting

            II

                        Inside a city

 a tower-block waits

amid frenzied shouts and cries

Fire-brigades

have been called

There may still be time to jump

People at windows panic

the pavement

      thirty feet down

            looks cool  untouched

Your lung-brain burns

as spectators

                 hold up sheets

                        to catch a child

III

Sie Werden Auferstehen  –  Munich

I have seen many Unknown Soldiers

            This one is posed

              like the rest

bayonet by his side

              the task closing in

                        Someone has placed

              chrysanthemums and roses

              at his feet

                              A late sun

              holds him in its frame

.