"Coaster" & "Neon Summer Rain" by Gwil James Thomas

Coaster.

It’s faded somewhat,

but something about it

has always caught my eye.

The grey skyline and traffic,

against brown marshland

and skeletons of bare winter trees,

beneath Suffolk’s Orwell Bridge -

taken nineteen eighty

something.

I think about those people

in the cars, the lives they led after,

the greying, the decaying

what love may have passed through

and the ironic nature

in which life eventually pans out.

And how unknowingly years on,

their journey still remains frozen in time

on a coaster -

beneath a reduced to clear can of 7-UP.

Neon Summer Rain.

*For Mark Anthony Pearce.

We take pictures,

as others run for cover.

Smeared purples,

whites and pinks

reflect in the puddles,

while the overflowing drains

spread the canvases

across the road.

A waterfall cascades

down the steps,

with illuminated

baby blue droplets

from the underpass,

like some late night

concrete waterpark.

And even in

the reflections

of flickering neon

corporate logos -

some magic is found

amongst the lost dreams

and rain soaked tents that

some people call home,

down in Bristol’s Bear Pit.

Gwil James Thomas is a poet, novelist and inept musician. He lives in his home town of Bristol England, but has also lived in London, Brighton and Spain. He has been nominated for Best of The Net twice and once for The Pushcart Prize. His twelfth chapbook of poetry Wild River Carry me To Sea is forthcoming from Back Room Poetry. His poems have recently featured in Viper’s Tongue, The Songs From The Underground anthology, DFL Lit, Paper & Ink and Late Britain Zine. He plans to one day build a house, amongst other things.