Bio
Alison Denham is a New Zealand poet, now living in Dunedin. Poetry has been published in various journals and magazines in NZ and the UK such as Poetry NZ, Sport,Takahe,Iota, NZ Listener. A first collection of poems was published by Christian Grey NZ, Auckland in 1999 and subsequent poems in an anthology 'When the Sea Goes Mad at Night' also by Christian Grey.
Alison Denham
Ghosts of York
In York ghosts gather on the street corners,
they all know each other, common thief hung,
the viking-slaughtered, sickly infant, King's
soldier clutching his proud wounds.
They blow the tourist rubbish from overfull bins.
They fly around Yorkminster's buttresses,
rest under the overhanging eaves in the Shambles,
follow an unsuspecting person home.
Your last lungful of air has just passed through theirs for
they existed just one moment ago. In the time it takes
to breathe out, they are dispelled.