Most Read... Rebecca WattsThe Cult of the Noble Amateur
(PN Review 239)
John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Next Issue Kirsty Gunn re-arranges the world John McAuliffe reads Seamus Heaney's letters and translations Chris Price's 'Songs of Allegiance' David Herman on Aharon Appelfeld Victoria Moul on Christopher Childers compendious Greek and Latin Lyric Book Philip Terry again answers the question, 'What is Poetry'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 124, Volume 25 Number 2, November - December 1998.

Two Poems Janet Fisher

Family Ghosts

Not the sort that weather themselves round you,
stream past the window shouting at owls, stand
in pools in your garden waving their severed heads
at the moon with your grandmother's hat on

but the letter you thought you hadn't received,
your undownloaded e-mail, an over-breath,
a dried dab of blood on a bandaid, a hand
by your ribcage, back door opening at a gust.


Once

Tonight it's a blue moon.
Our last day here, end of June,

things are working a treat -
in the Museum of Modern Art

the paint's flaking, raw material
under my fingernails,

onto the carpet off the Rothkos,
the poppy red ones. Photos
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image