Paul Waring: a poem

Edgeless

Today I lack spark

charmless as plain biscuits

sharp as a butter knife

in a doll's house.

Then it hits:

my God I've lost my edge

not even a match

for Miss Brodie's chrysanths

each articulation

a barrage of bum notes

dull as a bell buried

halfway up Everest.

Today you might as well know

I'll have nothing to say.

Paul Waring is a retired clinical psychologist from Wirral. His poetry is published in Prole, Atrium, Strix, Ink, Sweat & Tears, London Grip and elsewhere. Awarded second prize in the 2019 Yaffle Prize, commended in the 2019 Welshpool Poetry Competition, his debut pamphlet Quotidian is published by Yaffle Press.