Hindenburg Heart

You're mad to moor it here.
What about the winds?
What about the high winds?
How do you propose
to get people off?
You know, the swastika's not the best logo
and may subtract some sympathy
should you seek to become iconic
on newsreels or cool LP sleeves.
Stay as a blueprint,
or hide in the hangar.
Dirigible's just not doable.

Simon Barraclough was born in Huddersfield but has lived in London since 1996. He won the poetry section of the London Writers' Prize in 2000 and Los Alamos Mon Amour (Salt, 2008) was nominated for Best First Collection in the Forward Poetry Prizes. Bonjour Tetris (Penned in the Margins), a mini-book of commissions, followed in 2010. His work appears in Identity Parade (Bloodaxe 2010) and Poems for Love (Penguin 2009). Hindenburg Heart is from his new collection Neptune Blue, published by Salt.

Jody Porter