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Stephen Knight (b.1960) was born in Swansea and read English at Oxford. He is the author of several collections of poetry: Flowering Limbs (1993) and Dream City Cinema (1996), both published by Bloodaxe, and The Sandfields Baudelaire (Smith/ Doorstop, 1996). His first novel, Mr. Schnitzel, appeared from Penguin in 2000. He received an Eric Gregory Award in 1987 and won the 1992 National Poetry Competition. Everything Must Go The afternoon the pavements shine like glass although it pelting down / it isnt raining anymore, you leave the station of a town youve never visited before, passing a taxi rank, a red sign, light-headed traffic on the avenue of double yellow lines, elm trees coming into leaf at last You cover your eyes, but no one sees the new taste in your mouth is grief/is love, and no one speaks to you. Chained up outside a crumbling shop, a mongrel watches someone kiss the window, point, then say That to a woman mouthing This? Or this? and you are miles away, lost/waiting for the rain to stop while - in the violet light - clean paving-stones and golf umbrellas glow (your own face something of a shock, reflected in the runny window where the carriage clock or the wedding ring had been.) |