Still hours from home. My metal box
caught in the flow, future to past,
too close and fast. Red in front
pulses as far as tired red eyes
can see. I am a red corpuscle,
good soldier, my mother said,
the red ones fight infection.
Red river, Kizil Irmak, border,
edge of reason, out east a river
of tears, fears, of blood, flood
of refugees. Mind wanders
across the carriageway.
I soldier on to the next services
fighting sleep; I
can choose when to stop.
Aziz Dixon draws on English Pennine and Welsh landscapes and life experiences. He has been published in Pennine Ink and online with Irwell Inkwell and Algebra Of Owls. He launched his latest collection, Poet Emerging, with a reading at the Burnley Literary Festival 2016 and on Radio Lancashire.
He has recently published in Grapevine (Lampeter), The MOON, Panoply, Perspectives Magazine (Ontario), Strix, The Fat Damsel, The Curlew, and Light. Aziz recently read at the RS Thomas Literary Festival, Eglwysfach, in September 2017, and at the Burnley Literary Festival in October 2017. His work featured in Best of Bolton, November 2017.
