Poem of the Week - 'Poem For Testing Your Vision' by Gareth Durasow

Poem For Testing Your Vision

Now we have reached the trees - the beautiful trees!
their roots in someone's casket
contracting from the soil a human wilt,
bark aspiring to marble,
trunk to Venus de Milo
and to that end wishes lightning to strike twice
to drape their arms across car windscreens
the tiara they proffer no tiara at all
but the jaw they grew up with,
the memory of birdsong as it sounded before
laughter and smoke alarms,
rifle report
of a child advancing 
plastic battalions
blasting snails into rubble and slag
happy as Ginsberg in Bunting's lap
we'll be together at the end of the Stelliferous Age
building a sandbank with our pension of skin,
gifted to the Westerlies, encrusting guitar strings.

With its descriptive imagery and often strange and fascinating juxtaposition, this poem is truly one which tests your vision. From Durasow's collection Endless Running Games, available on our website.