David R. Morgan

Higgs boson

A silver watch you've worn for years
suffers a particle reverse and vanishes,
leaving a pale white stripe
blazing on your wrist.

A calendar marked with all
the appointments you meant to keep
disappoints,
leaving a faded spot on the wall
where it hung.

One night the glass in your windows
vanish,
leaving you sitting in a gust of wind.

The child you've raised for years,
combing each lock,
tailoring each smile, tending each tear,
each valuable thought,

suddenly changes into a harlequin,
dances into the parade passing in the street,
never to be seen again.

One morning you wash your face,
look into the mirror,
find the water has eroded your features,
worn them smooth as a rock in a brook.

A blank oval peers back at you
too mouthless to cry out. 

 

David R Morgan teaches 11-19 year olds at Cardinal Newman School, in Luton, and lives in Bedfordshire . He has been teaching at the school since 1991.

David has been an arts worker and literature officer, organizer of book festivals and writer-in-residence for education authorities, Littlehay Prison and Fairfield Psychiatric Hospital (which was the subject of a Channel 4 film, Out of Our Minds).He has had two plays screened on ITV and over 200 hundred poems published in National and International Poetry Magazines. His books for children include:  The Strange Case of William Whipper-Snapper, three Info Rider books for Collins and Blooming Cats which won the Acorn Award and was recently animated for BBC2's Words and Pictures Plus as well as a Horrible Histories biography: Spilling The Beans On Boudicca.  David has also written poetry books, his latest collections, Beneath The Dreaming Tree was published by Poetry Space Ltd in October 2011 and Lightbulbs In The Sea by Knives, Forks & Spoons Press was published in November 2011.