Edited by

Andy Willoughby

and Bob Beagrie

This issue of SLQ is dedicated to the memory of

ESIABA IROBI (1960 – 2010)

CHRISTIAN WARD

Civvies

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!

                               Wilfred Owen

None of the class could put their uniform

on in under a minute, fit their gas masks

and speak in a BBC accent. Two ran off

to explore World War Two but got lost

in the Blitz. Boys cooed at machine gun

nests and gagged at the taste of canned beef,

mistaking it for mustard gas. Everyone

laughed at the tour guide’s rendition

of "Oh! It’s a Lovely War" but wept

when someone’s mobile phone went off,

blaring Michael Jackson’s "Billy Jean".

Some of the older children vowed

to enlist in Kitchener’s army if

he was still around, tattooing

God Save the King on their forearms

during lunch. Nobody chewed the words

of "Dulce et Decorum est" thoroughly.

At the end of the day, everyone carved

trenches into their desks and stared

at the clock, waiting for it to drop like a bomb.

‘Civvies’ is the 3rd Prize Winner, SLQ Poetry Competition July 2010.

 
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JULY-SEPTEMBER INDEX
COMPETITIONS
DRAMA
ESSAYS & REVIEWS
FICTION
IROBI IN SENTINEL
IROBI, TRIBUTES
POETRY

Christian Ward is a 29 year old London-based poet currently studying an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. His poetry has appeared in Iota, Poetry Wales and the Warwick Review. He won First Prize in the Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition (April 2010)

SPQ #2