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POETRY IN THE PLAGUE YEAR

Poems written during the Coronavirus Outbreak 2020

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 Lawrence Illsley
Abertillery, Wales


Lawrence Illsley is an award-winning poet who was recently shortlisted for The Bridport Prize. He completed an MA at Birkbeck receiving the Sophie Warne Award and a distinction for his narrative poem A Brief History of Trees. His poems have featured in Shooter, MIR and the Atlanta Review. He is poetry editor at the Mechanics' Institute Review. Instagram @abriefhistoryoftrees Twitter @Lawrence_poet


Poem completed: 29th April 2020

 

 

The Springtime Battalion

 

out of their winter bolt holes

come the springtime

battalion,

bold in their anti-camouflage

of red and black

polka dots, waddling

like tanks across

the three-dimensional map

of my bathroom

 

the grid-lined

floor tiles, the iced

contours of wall

 

until their elytra crack,

like an observatory opening,

and each remembers

suddenly,

in a flurry of filigreed

veins and opalescent

membrane,

they are gifted

with flight