Andrew Pidoux: One Poem

Andrew Pidoux

Andrew Pidoux’s work has appeared in Picador’s New Writing 10, Faber and Faber’s First Pressings and two Doctor Who collections. His poem "Lazy Song" was recorded by the band Yellow Kid and released on Regular Beat. He won the Crashaw Prize in 2009. His debut poetry collection Year of the Lion will be published by Salt Publishing later this year. He currently lives in Harlesden in West London.

The Madness of Robert Walser

Swiss writer (1878-1956)

The sanest folk cannot account for death,
Regardless of their history of doubt.
You can’t decide to terminate your breath—
It happens by itself when you are out
Crusading through the fields behind your house
Or hospital. Your last words duly freeze
Inside your lungs. The melancholy grouse
Floats up into the white, bone-headed trees.
Your work becomes a squinting microscript
That squirms inside a cabinet or drawer,
A bush that burns to be deciphered, clipped
Into a shape we can admire, a law.
But you yourself just melt into the snow,
Become the things your readers cannot know.