The filth and the rag brine
(from "Barren Stories for Moonlit mannequins")
 
 
The mirror looked like it had been
up all night. A sunken, netted and
pilfered salmon marked by the
severity of the fisherman’s net.
Blood dances like shadow assassins.
Inflated, pink skull.
The room dropped to its knees.
A man can bruise in many ways.
 
Eyes tired as mothers of gin and
drivers with bad road directions.
The gut of brokenness.
Overture in songbird elegy:
reminder of the dead broken heart.
You are always alone,
even when in good company.

​© Mark G Pennington

Mark G Pennington

Mark G Pennington is a writer based in Kendal, Cumbria and is the author of Barren Stories for Moonlit Mannequins, his debut book of poems published by Dempsey and Windle (2018). He has recently been nominated for The Pushcart Prize for poetry.
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Praise for "Barren Stories for Moonlit Mannequins":
"Mark G Pennington’s poetry is masculine and sensual. It’s orchids and roses, it’s burnt orange and deep burgundy. It’s playing the blues on the accordion in a jazz bar. It’s a soulful busker with a battered guitar in the rain or the corner of a brothel. It’s spicy and secret with hints of Mexico, beat poets, angels and a shy Cumbrian. Mark G Pennington takes you to a place that you want to inhabit but from the safety of a page. A page that no longer feels like a page but a portal you are keen to re-visit. This is a poet you will fall in love with and after his poem Impossible Heart, you can’t help but love him with your guts."
Ann Grant 

ISBN 978-1-907435-61-4
29 poems, 45 pages
perfect-bound paperback
​15cm x 21cm
​£7.00