Three poems from Wild Life by James McDermott, published by Nine Arches Press in June 2023
Roadkill
cruising Cromer back lanes at dusk I come
across squashed deer oily blood a mirror
guts mixed with sticks and stones wearing its heart
fluid body couldn’t run free from man
Recentre
I Google Maps High Kelling to Weybourne
57 minutes this smartphone knows
I’m male 5 9 10 3 so thinks it knows
how long it will take me to walk assumes
I won’t mince it or skip strut limp I won’t
be chased 2.6 miles via Church Close
the easy route is to take the straight road
walk the blue line Google guesses I won’t
follow my nose up dirt tracks but I do
cruise through Kelling woods traveller’s joy
sweet violets fungi to find my own
passage in the arse end of North Norfolk
Android shouts recentre I lose signal
I get lost I reach my destination
Masculinity Is A Drag
category is construction realness
on the pavement’s catwalk trade men werk it
heeled boots big belts neon vests helmets
made up in dusty powder smeared in oil
doing their routine glossing gluing skirting
filling drilling pumping grinding smashing
all lip syncing to the same old pop song
gagging on shade thrown at one another
builder’s T is everywhere
their feelings tucked
