Poetry: Kevin Higgins | Cassandra Voices

Poetry: Kevin Higgins


This Is Not a Well Made Poem

The well made poem puts on its dicky bow,
walks to the top of the hill,
and has what it calls an epiphany.

The well made poem sees every side of the argument,
except those proscribed by the BBC.

The well made poem has between
twelve and twenty five lines,
all roughly the same length.

The well made poem worries
about Afghanistan (and before that
Vietnam) only when the situation there
might lead to the whole idea
of the well made poem
being vaporised
by a device left at the side of the road.

The well made poem plans to bury
GK Chesterton, William Wordsworth, Sir John Betjeman
and, eventually, Sir Andrew Motion
under its sparkling new patio.

The well made poem never mentions
the puppy processing factory
it knows you own, or your preference
for televised inter gender wrestling.

The well made poem believes
nuclear weapons are necessary
to keep poems like it safe
from all the rough language
gathered ungovernable at the border
forever threatening to invade it.

Feature Image: “Baker Shot”, part of Operation Crossroads, a nuclear test by the United States at Bikini Atoll in 1946.


About Author

Kevin Higgins’s poems have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, RTE Radio One, and Lyric FM; and quoted in The Daily Telegraph, The Times (UK), Hot Press, The Daily Mirror and on Tonight with Vincent Browne. He had published six collections of poetry with Salmon Poetry, the most recent being ‘Sex and Death at Merlin Park Hospital’ (2019). His books can be purchased at www.salmonpoetry.com.

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