Poetry Magazine
Ornithogalum Dubium
Lame again, I limp home along Lawn Terrace
with a flowering sun star in a paper wrap
then back to the village with a lame cat
twisting and woeful in her cage.
Bread these days isn't baked to last:
how sad those posh loaves thudding off
in pine breadbins all around the Heath:
soulless latterday pets, frisky for a day
or two, then binned or thrown to foxes,
loaves just an inch of gloom below
the caged birds you notice in corners
of those same mansions when you seek
the past, dinking their mirrors, dipping
once in a while for a sip of milk.
Source: Poetry (June 2008).
Biography
Roddy Lumsden was born in St. Andrews, Scotland; he describes his upbringing as small-town and working-class. His earliest exposure to literature came from his mother and older brother, who would read aloud to him when he was a child. Later, when he attended school, his writing was influenced by the works of W.S. Graham, Philip Larkin, Thom Gunn, T.S. Eliot, and Sylvia Plath, and by song lyrics.
His work is marked by an . . .
Poems by Roddy Lumsden
Poem Categorization
SUBJECT Social Commentaries, Class
POET’S REGION Scotland
If you disagree with this poem's categorization, make a suggestion.
Poem of the Day: The Beautiful
Your results will be limited to content that appeared in Poetry magazine.
