☛ We are inviting submission in the field of literature and literary theory in the form of article, book review, poem, short story, travelogue and interview for our regular April issue (Vol. 6, No. 2). The last date for submission is 31 March, 2025.

COLISEUM NIGHTS

 


COLISEUM NIGHTS

St Martin’s Lane, London, 1969.

-         Seán Street (U.K.)

When for five shillings we sat among gods

watching, vertiginous, the small blessed world

staged and glowing, lime-lit far below us.

Never was flute so magic as when it

rose up at our feet, echoing along

the reflecting homeward street, the pavements’

glass, we two aiming ourselves beyond rain

into a life we had yet to invent.

 

Flying from that great height into the space

beyond us, pure with possibility,

we shared then a perfect trajectory

across unmade days through new-built air

in shapes carved out by no one before us.

For we were five shilling gods, come from sky,

invincible, singing a transcending song

in our own follow-spot, on a timed ticket.

 

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