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1 March 2023

The NS Poem: From Brother Poem

A new poem by Will Harris.

By Will Harris

Mum near Covent Garden      

    dragging her feet after work

        buys a top she’ll never wear

and trudges home to find us

    sitting in front of the tv

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cottage pie back in the oven

               whatever it was

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        that crossed her mind

                transposed

    rage solo at a different

pitch     low enough to be

        inaudible    we turn

    the volume up    still

                light at half eight

        the curtains drawn

the first poem I wrote was in

    my mind     looking outside

           while my parents

fought      my brother hiding

      under the bed    a

          paleblue thought in

our mother’s mind moving too

           fast to be caught

Will Harris’s “RENDANG” won the Forward Prize for best first collection. His second collection, “Brother Poem”, is published by Granta

[See also: The NS Poem: The estate agents take a tour]

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This article appears in the 01 Mar 2023 issue of the New Statesman, The Mission