Scott Elder

In the Maelström

First the fissure, then the fall
one little cog has given up

a bit of iron in a pool of oil
the concrete floor is weeping

underneath: a breath of earth
you attune your ear to whispers

a spiral tugging at your sleeve,
a pulsar’s secret murmur 

lying limp on every tongue
of every stranger in the street

it’s just a tale, a star’s demise
I’ll have cognac with café

a cube of sugar for the bitter,
another for the bite 

 

 

View From the Terrace

There are only two people on shore
from here it looks like a boy and his mother

the boy is throwing stones into water
now, they are walking away 

in one hand he’s holding a doll
in the other his mother’s fingers

the doll is bald as a cloudless sky
now, only the chug of a trawler

etching a line in the bay
un autre verre, s’il vous plait 

the waitress lifts my empty glass
I drown in a glimpse of her hand

and, breathless, breathe in the sea
the boat     the sky     me

 

Scott Elder’s work has been widely published on both sides of the Atlantic as well as having been placed or commended in numerous competitions in the UK and Ireland and shortlisted in the Bridport, Fish, Plough, and Troubadour Prizes. His debut pamphlet, ‘Breaking Away’, was published by Poetry Salzburg in 2015. A first collection, ‘Part of the Dark’, by Dempsey&Windle 2017 (UK), and his second, ‘My Hotel’, is forthcoming in Salmon Poetry 2023 (Ireland).