Bernard Pearson’s work appears in over one hundred publications worldwide, including; Aesthetica Magazine , The Edinburgh Review, The York Literary Review In 2017 Heart of Flesh a selection of his poetry ‘In Free Fall’ was published by Leaf by Leaf Press. In 2019 he won second prize in The Aurora Prize for Writing for his poem Manor Farm
Oral History
‘Where’s the pattern
Off the lino gone then ?’
She would ask,
When told in class that
Matter was indestructible.
In the important years,
When the heat is on in your
heart all the time like
a jammed switch
And Churchill had said
The hun is at hand
She’d thought they’d better
Hurry up, so they did ,
in the scullery
among the jars
of Japonica jelly
after the kisses
he had stolen,
with his sulky lips,
She had an
upset stomach and
the kind of smile
even work on
Monday morning
couldn’t wash off.
She’d wished him luck as
She’d waived him good bye,
Fat lot of good that did.
“That wasn’t you dear,
That was your mother,
Drink your hot chocolate up
There’s a good girl.’
And something in the old Ladies
Mirror looked back at her
And laughed
it were like crab meat on
the fish counter they say in
France when the rain
had come blanching
all the bodies from either side.
Uniformally you might say
Outside there were men setting up
Drumhead altars or roadworks
right opposite her window
They looked tired before
They’d begun, in their
half mast trousers
And their high viz jackets
Each one a ‘Sniper’s delight’.
Is what he would have said.
The Field Guide Poetry Magazine 