Joe Carrick-Varty

Withdrawal

Unpack tins of soup — open windows —
scrape grease from the hob —
sync your breathing with his — walk
with purpose between the bathroom
and the light-filled kitchen —
find a moth and let it live — postcards
in a drawer — pictures of a holiday — on the carpet
build a house out of tins — a family —
trees dotted around a pond —
a swallow’s nest like the backdoor of a star —
a note on the table you’ll soon cycle away from
your fingers like prunes and smelling of bleach.

Joe Carrick-Varty is an Irish/British poet who lives in London. His poems have appeared in the New Statesman, Poetry Ireland Review and Magma. His debut pamphlet, Somewhere Far (The Poetry Business) won the 2018 New Poets Prize. He is founder and co-editor of bath magg.