Most Read... John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(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 Sinead Morrissey 'The Lightbox' Philip Terry 'What is Poetry' Ned Denny 'Nine Poems after Verlaine' Sasha Dugdale 'On learning that Russian mothers buy their soldier sons lucky belts inscribed with Psalm 90 to wear into battle' Rod Mengham 'Cold War Hot Air'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 234, Volume 43 Number 4, March - April 2017.

Two Poems Rowland Bagnall
In the Funhouse

In Superman: the Movie (1978), Superman turns back time
by flying backwards round the globe. We see a rockslide
happen in reverse as Lois Lane emerges from the sinkhole
she’s been crushed to death in, meaning that she never died
at all. In the Funhouse, a mirror shows me stretched, my head
caved in, the sole survivor of some hilarious near-fatal collision.

Halfway down an artificial indoor beach (running along a back
wall painted with what looked suspiciously like the Normandy
landings: upturned bodies on the sand, bits of bodies in the sea,
the constant sound of waves and cartoon screaming and explosions
coming from a speaker hidden somewhere in the ceiling) I wondered
if my limbs had returned to normal. The floor began to move in

circles at different speeds. The walls pressed slowly in around me.  
Next door, a neon light shone on a plastic Christopher Reeve.
I made my hand into a fist and thrust it out in front of me which
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image