New Poetry by Alex McKeown

Two Talents

July 2012

It’s been twenty-four years

And my light is spent

On the first

Eight hours a day

And I can’t get to sleep

With these songs in my head

I wrote them a year ago

And then an hour ago

Sat up and feared

They were gone

(Since when was the last time

I sat and played? Just played?)

And how can I know

But to go through them all

Singing upside down

The songs that were once mine

And lined my mind

Every day with space and light

I had the space to play

The light to write by

And now they’re spent

The first eight hours a day

- © Alex Mckeown 2021

Alex McKeown is a Tasmanian poet and translator. His writing has most recently appeared in The Pi Review, Plumwood Mountain, and Blue Unicorn. A selection of his published poems can be read on 

alexmckeownpoetry.com