‘Pandora’s Box’ by Graham Allen

Risk is what is at the bottom of the box
since hope is hazard in its Sunday best.
There is part of you still wants to wake
to a new sky out of a new window,
to show new eyes to a glistening world,
but the chances of that have diminished
and when they do arrive you let them slip
like a book purchased but left unread.
The clouds are full of a translucent light
and recall the majesty of morning.
But you have to force yourself to stay.
There is too much innocence involved.
Life is no longer an open field,
youth is a pile of neglected photos,
the thing you quest for does not fit
or comes at an inconvenient time.
Rain clouds gather, the light darkens,
the moment of arresting beauty fades.

From issue #4: spring/summer 2017

About the Author
Graham Allen is Professor in English at UCC. He won the 2010 Listowel Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Crashaw Poetry Prize 2013 and the Strong/Shine First Collection Prize 2015. His collections The One That Got Away and The Madhouse System are published by New Binary Press. Holes: Decade I is forthcoming in 2017.