The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

The Friday Poem on 05/11/21

We chose Coda by Rory Waterman for The Friday Poem because it demonstrates such technical precision and because, in just five couplets, it succeeds in diving us deep into a horrifying world. The tightness of the form and neatly crafted internal and end rhyme all serve to underline the rigid and controlling nature of the narrator; form and content work together to create a nightmarish atmosphere.

Coda

Consider, darling: one day, there will be
a bedroom in the loft, a baby boy

to fill it, and we’ll kiss on sun-kissed sand
in every paradise we dreamed about

before you changed — when I’d first take you out.
I understand you don’t mean to destroy

that with your moods. But love, you have to trust me:
we’ll be the perfect pair, love. Understand

that you’ll forget today, me fondling your hair
to throw you, blubbing, face-down at a chair.

Rory Waterman is the author of three collections from Carcanet: Tonight the Summer’s Over, which was a PBS Recommendation and was shortlisted for a Seamus Heaney Award; Sarajevo Roses, shortlisted for the Ledbury Forte Prize, and most recently Sweet Nothings. He teaches English at Nottingham Trent University, has written several books on modern and contemporary poetry, and co-edits New Walk Editions. Rory Waterman’s website is here

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