Nick Monks
Sunk Island—Hull
(8000 acre agricultural sandbank on a curve of the river Humber, East Riding, England)
1
I stand at the centre of an infinite plain satiated
Meadows forever swished, pollen scented air
The dark comes like a symphony of time
A body buffeted, leaning into the gale
My hood billows and crackles like an urban plastic bag
The night is a cathedral of stars and moon
2
Once a city stood, then it fell into the clogged earth
Now this is all there is
Once there was a local pub, a train station, a semi
But now this is all there is
Once there was a marriage and kids
Until there was just this
City combing the elsewhere’s of nothing
The unseen river Humber’s clogged swish
3
Indecipherable something approaches
Through millennia and dark, breath bitten distance
Something that was always there in the soul the cranium
Something about marriage, between blood and sky
Nick Monks currently lives in Preston, Lancashire, England. He studied philosophy at Hull University and spent about seven years working and travelling around the world. He’s currently working on a play and first novel amongst other projects. He is widely published in UK small press magazines. His latest pamphlet Cities Like Jerusalem is published by bluebell publishing.
Monks writes: “The poem was written as presented. I went birdwatching along the river Humber (something I’ve now given up due to lack of time) and got stranded in the dark. The wind in telegraph wires and being away from habitation seemed more real and even slightly frightening than my then student life in the city Hull about three miles away to its outer suburbs (or at least different from that life). I wrote the poem about a year ago, relying on a 24 year old memory.”