And then my watch stopped, but not
Like a crashing car or a rabbit caught by a fox.
No drama in this crisis.
The hands slid to a graceful halt,
Worn down by time and friction.
My elderly neighbour had an elderly Aston Martin
Parked in a garage and never driven again.
He would glance at the garage
And glance at his watch
And say ‘You need a light heart
‘To drive one of those.
‘Now it is weighed down by grease and gravity.’
Though whether it was his heart or the car I never asked,
Even though I bought the round.
But it sold, and sold well,
Unlike the house, which hung around for years.
We sat beneath the oak tree and watched his roses grow
While the shadows of discarded machinery
Marched across the lawn.
<>
Time has a language of its own, I’ve heard,
With hard words like ‘Never’ and ‘Enough’,
Soft words like ‘Maybe’ and ‘Again’.
Healing words, like ‘Bind up’ and ‘Embrace’,
Cutting words, like ‘Told you so,’ and ‘Stop’.
The language that everything learns as it grows old;
The earth tells it to the oak,
The oak tells it to its leaves.
My neighbour, I reckon, taught it to his car.
But my watch had to learn it for itself.
Edward Alport is a retired teacher and proud Essex Boy. He occupies his time as a gardener and writer for children. He has had poetry published in a variety of webzines and magazines. When he has nothing better to do he posts snarky micropoems on Twitter as @cross_mouse. He moderates the monthly @ThePoetryFloor poetry event on Twitter.
James is the author of four collections of poetry, Solace Between the Lines (2019), Light (2016), Ancient Rhythms (2014), and The Silent Pond (2012). He has had over 1,440 poems (four of which were nominated for Pushcart and Best of Web Awards), five novels, eight essays, and thirty-five short stories published. He earned his BS and MA from California State Polytechnic University, and his doctorate from BYU.
Laura Potts is twenty-one years old and lives in West Yorkshire. She has twice been named a Foyle Young Poet. Her poems have appeared in Seamus Heaney’sAgenda, The Interpreter’s House and Poetry Salzburg Review. She has recently been shortlisted for a Charter-Oak Award for Best Historical Fiction at The University of Colorado and also made The 2017 Oxford Brookes International Poetry Prize shortlist. This year Laura became one of The Poetry Business’ New Poets and a BBC New Voice for 2017. Her first BBC radio drama Sweet The Mourning Dew will air at Christmas 2017.
Graham Burchell lives in South Devon. He has four published collections. He has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. He is a Hawthornden Fellow, 2012 Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year, winner of the 2015 Stanza competition, and runner-up in the 2016 BBC Proms poetry competition.
Rachel Bower is a poet and research fellow at the University of Leeds. Her pamphlet, Moon Milk, will be published with Valley Press in May 2018. She is currently co-editing an anthology with Helen Mort entitled Verse Matters, which is out with Valley Press in November 2017. Her book, Epistolarity and World Literature, 1980-2010 will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in August 2017. Rachel’s poems have been published by Stand Magazine, BBC Radio, Now Then Magazine, Valley Press, Three Drops Press, The Stare’s Nest, Pankhearst and others, and she has had poems shortlisted for several prizes, including The London Magazine Poetry Prize and the Plough Prize 2016. She is also the founder of Verse Matters, a feminist arts collective in Sheffield.
James Diaz is the founding editor of the literary arts & music journal 
or a novella (Press 53) and a chapbook of flash fiction (Conium Review). A memoir, Surviving Susan, was published in 2012. Jackie teaches at City College of San Francisco.
Roma Havers is a Manchester-based poet, currently in her third year of an Drama and English degree at The University of Manchester where she is the Books Editor for The Mancunion and Chair of the Creative Writing Society. She performs regularly at spoken word nights, and events such as Reclaim the Night and UniPresents.
Foxglove Journal 