I am delighted to have my poem An Old Man’s Overcoat included in the Dreich chapbook ‘Family’. Dreich is a Scottish poetry press, named after Scotland’s most iconic word, as voted for by the good people of that country. My thanks to editor Jack Caradoc. ht

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AN OLD MAN’S OVERCOAT

summer wore

an old man’s overcoat

again

this year

roaming emptied streets,

children and neighbours chatting

gone,

reflecting

his reflection

in reflections

where sky meets walls

trapping the watchers

inside curtained windows

behind closed doors

and holes in floors holding pools.

modern mirages of money

infiltrating stone circles,

pass through standing bones

like ring wraiths

possessing the solstice

of reason and meaning

in Us being here,

while my old man, changes his God

dying as he lived

in his house,

skeleton and skin

going to meet the awesome silent ashes

of the man he was

when last summer wore

an old man’s overcoat.