Featured Poet: Alex McRae

Eyewear is very glad to welcome British poet Alex McRae (pictured) this rainy London Friday. McRae was born in London; educated at Oxford; and now lives in Washington DC, where she works in the media. She won an Eric Gregory Award in 2009.

Her poetry has been published in Poetry Review, Magma, the Manhattan Review, Penumbra, and Nth Position. I met her first when she was a student of mine in an advanced monthly poetry seminar I was running at The Poetry School, which has included the likes of Helen Mort, Joe Dunthorne, and Emily Berry. She more than held her own in the group and I was very glad to see her work recognised with the Gregory. I'm now looking forward to her debut collection. She has a wonderful eye for detail, a good sense of music, and a disconcerting way with an image.

Buffalo Billiards

I was apart in a green sea of tables,

players cocked at the hip over spotlit baize,

taking that last behind-the-shoulder glance

before committing to the shot.

You rolled in from nowhere, right on cue.

You bought us all a round, and said

“Welcome to my country”, resting your beer

on the satiny sill of wood. My sister

flashed her belly just above the pocket

while some guy tried to take his shot.

We leant over the empty pool table,

all our angles tilted towards each other:

neck through shoulder, elbow through wrist,

our slow collision set off by the lightest brush.

poem by Alex McRae; published online with permission of the author

Comments

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