Sue Rose: The Wreck of the Alba

Sue Rose

Born in London, Sue Rose now lives in Kent where she works as a literary translator. She has an MPhil in writing from Glamorgan University and her poetry has appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies. She has been placed in various competitions, winning the Troubadour Poetry Prize in 2009 and the Canterbury Poet of the Year competition in 2008. Her debut collection is due out from Cinnamon in the autumn of 2011.

The Wreck of the Alba

(after Alfred Wallis)

Masts, decks, jetty, hills, dulled to old metal,
sunlessness, the mineral land, squalled wet.
Coal in the holds, iron in the stones, no light
from the lighthouse; the vessel is divided
by salt water churning like chyme.

It’s a dirty drowning, thick water filling eyes,
ears, lungs, like off-milk, rancid curds blueing
the periphery. Things lost flash by, dropping
into the depths. You cannot keep a hold—
they plummet through the water like dark boots.