Poetry 27 January 2021 The NS Poem: Childhood A poem by Iain Britton. Getty Sign UpGet the New Statesman\'s Morning Call email. Sign-up why this crumpled overcoat in summer this podium reserved for talking i listen to the river, to seagulls to this dishevelled person with monuments for bones, who gambles away the hills & lakes risks losing what he breathes he rolls in his own contours, plays his hand, hopes it will define the person he really is his childhood slides through a clarinet’s thirst for hitting high notes i listen to the river & watch for rain a commuter train scorches past on the platform a small boy bites into his granny’s apple. Iain Britton is an Aotearoa New Zealand poet. His latest collection is "The Intaglio Poems" (Hesterglock Press). › NS Recommends: New books from Richard Flanagan, Brian Christian and Vesna Main This article appears in the 27 January 2021 issue of the New Statesman, The Lost