Christian Ward

Friday Night at the Platypus Disco

The bag of tangerines
deep frying its light
under the pretence of love,

or the unforgiving surveillance
of several high wattage bulbs,
is about as convincing

as the platypodes swapping numbers
with the cuttlefish, their common
honesty glowing like a shared

genetic politeness. I never had
such policies – you loved me
like a weed determined to be

a B-movie in the face of
the atomic bomb rattling towards
a conclusion, while I was

the stillness rooted in a moment
about to be blanked out of existence.
Forget the fruit, let’s bump lines.

Author Reading

About the Author

Christian Ward is a London-based poet with two collections, Intermission and Zoo, available on Amazon and elsewhere. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, was longlisted for the 2023 National Poetry Competition, and was recognised in the Maria Edgeworth, Pen to Print, London Independent Story, and Shahidah Janjua Poetry competitions. Recent work appears in recent work in Streetcake Magazine, The Madrid Review, Mugwort Magazine, and The Alchemy Spoon.