Jame Mckendrick "Afterquake"
Jame Mckendrick "Afterquake" By some cosmic quirk the disconnected phone unleashed a scarlet squeal. – I pounced. Before the apology expired I asked and got the wrong number the voice had tried, so for a whole year without a single bill I owned those magic digits to dispense – only for incoming not outgoing calls but a tiny lifeline to the ancient flat in via Torquato Tasso I shared with the din of Cerberus barking in the courtyard – forget the rat – and a crack the earthquake leſt in the vaulted ceiling. Thirty years on, in the small dark hours, I reach for the black Bakelite receiver to hear the music of Venus receding. From Drypoint, Faber & Faber, 2024 This poem by James McKendrick, set in Salerno, speaks of a surreal and intimate connection forged through a fortuitous chance—a wrong phone number that became a "small lifeline." The poem weaves together memory, mythology, and nostalgia, with Venus symbolizing love, beauty, and desire. Venus here m...