J. D. Dixon

 

 

i.

In the pale sun
of a small life’s troubles,
in a quiet place,
I sit calmly in my chair,
playing chicken with my words.

 

ii.

Tragic mountains rise
sharp against the horizon.
A chorus sweetly
sings. Friends: speak of the devil
and nothing much will happen.

 

iii.

The sad, lonely truth:
nothing much of anything
happens in this town.
They call it the centre of
all, but that’s a fairy-tale.

 

iv.

The world sits apart.
Men don’t face it when they pray;
they face forwards and
nowhere else. There are no clouds
in the goddam sky today.

 

v.

The sun’s radiance
burns bright in my quiet eyes,
and it’s gone too soon.

 

vi.

Stark beauty mirrors
an undesired romance
for this dying world.

 

vii.

Beautiful foothills
distort the world; I tell them
my heart is bigger,
it is all that I can see.
But they say the world’s so wide.

 

viii.

A small child speaks:
I’m afraid of the darkness.
There’s no light today.

 

 

 

 

J. D. DIXON is a novelist, playwright and poet based in Glasgow, UK. His first novel, The unrivalled transcendence of Willem J. Gyle (Thistle Publishing, 2017) was shortlisted for the 2018 Somerset Maugham Award, among other accolades. His first play, It’s My Turn, debuted at the Edinburgh International Science Festival (2019) and has subsequently gone on tour around Scotland. He is currently working on his second novel and a collection of poetry.