Nicholas Murray
Dream
​
I had a dream last night:
four men on a small island
lapped by a frozen sea
in long, black coats
no hair on their heads
their sins all forgotten
mumbling to the wind:
We are not a protest movement.
We are not a debating society.
We are nothing – like the wind
which whistles through these stones
coming from a far place,
a white tundra gleaming in late sun,
and we offer you nothing
which is the safest of options;
look at it spread on our opened palms
as if it were food for the ravenous gulls.
Nicholas Murray is a poet and biographer born in Liverpool but now based in Wales. His verse diatribe against the Coalition, Get Real!, was published by Rack Press in 2011. Poetry collections: Acapulco (2012), The Secrets of the Sea (2015), A Dog's Brexit (2018), The Yellow Wheelbarrow (2019), all published by The Melos Press. He is one of 20 poets who contributed to Poets for Corbyn. He is the winner of the 2015 Basil Bunting Award.
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar