The Friday Poem on 26/07/2024
It takes Christian Wethered just nine lines to draw us in to the world of boarding school, matron, dorms, and a young child missing home and family. ‘Lights Out’ is beautifully composed, with meticulous attention paid to rhyme and half-rhyme (out / shut / hot, takes / socks, creaking / talking) – there’s nothing extraneous, and nothing missing. And so much rests on that word “careful”. It’s evocative and very moving.
Lights Out
When you close your eyes after lights out
see how long it takes –
when the dormitory door swings shut
and you rub thighs against the sheets to stay warm,
teddies smelling of clean socks
and radiators creaking;
when matron comes in with a torch to stop the talking
see how long it takes for the first tear,
careful and hot.
