27 October, 2014 • Issue 26.2 • Creative Writing • Original Poetry
The Last Tape
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Crowds streamed along the path to the industrial estate.
There were rumours of spring, of oxygen.
We arrived at the waste disposal unit. A cargo of goods spilled
out of a storage container tied to a lorry.
Linoleum rolls, laptops, rabbit cages. Everything had rotted to mush.
A white polyester football shirt lay in the sun sighing with mould.
The crowd formed a circle. You came to me carrying an armful of rubbish.
The sun splashed ribbons of light over your beautiful hair.
After hours of waiting a cassette tape fell from the pile.
We shivered.
I kissed your mud-covered hands, and the music on the tape
spread and echoed through the crowd like holy thunder.
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Alex Niven is assistant editor at New Left Review. His first poetry collection, The Last Tape, will be published by Zero Books on 31 October 2014.
