Reviewing politics
and culture since 1913

  1. Culture
  2. Poetry
20 July 2022

The NS Poem: city pastoral / summer

A new poem by Andrew McMillan.

By Andrew McMillan

and the smell of the tip coming in    strong
as the flowers in the backyard are colourful

and the dogshits     drying quicker     becoming
neater to lift from the shingle     like shells

and all things becoming easier     waking
in the morning     getting through the day

so now we’re in the loft     sealing woollen jumpers
like precious cargo of an earlier     darker age

and when you crack the velux window     like opening
a fresh tin of paint     beyond the low roofs     the city

skyline is shimmering like a lake I dream
of pushing you headlong into

Andrew McMillan’s poetry collections include “Pandemonium” (Jonathan Cape). He is the co-editor, with Mary Jean Chan, of “100 Queer Poems” (Vintage)

Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month

[See also: The best books for summer 2022]

Content from our partners
Every child deserves access to vaccination
Cyber attacks are evolving – so too must government response
The public sector's rocky-road to innovation

This article appears in the 20 Jul 2022 issue of the New Statesman, The Broken Party