Guest Post Poem by Martin Westlake

Some years ago, Sterling Books here in Brussels had a Poetry Day and my friend Martin and I went down and recited poems to the staff in exchange for €10 vouchers. I did Button. Martin did Crushed Salamander.

Martin's poem has since been, recently, published, but as it is not available online he has graciously given me permission to post it here.

It just goes to show, one's poems do eventually find a home....

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Crushed Salamander

by Martin Westlake

The beet hills massed expectantly

As we left the field and headed

Down the track towards the stream.

Colour flashed in the rutted lane;

A crushed salamander, vividly dead,

Spread gut-strewn in a puddle.

The straggling blackthorns shrugged, as if to say:

‘You may have been able to walk through fire, my friend,

But you were no match for a tractor.’

From United In Words, Poetry Now, Peterborough, 2009, (www.forwardpress.co.uk) ISBN: 978-184418-490-3

salamander image credit