After ten years in the print industry, Andrew Lander started up a bookselling company which he has now run with his partner, for the last eight years. He writes and paints, when time allows, and his work can be seen in many print and online literary journals. Past appearances include: Poetry Now, Purple Patch, Never Bury Poetry, Zygote In My Coffee. You can view some of his artwork by going here

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SELECTED POETRY

by
Andrew Lander

TRENDS

on a school trip
to the lido

I almost drowned
trying to impress
an eleven year old girl
who didn’t like
me.

The kids on the bus
chanted my desire.
I would have crawled
away
like a bug
had I been able
too.

She was troubled.
Would bang her head
against the classroom
wall.

I’m attracted to
the oddities,
the slightly crazy
wild
kind

who appear too busy
looking for
themselves.

© Andrew Lander

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TIME

When you open up a corpse
And hack saw through bone
Do you find metaphor?
When you sever the tubes
And remove the pump,
Can you wring out anything other
Than the truth?
That this thing we are
This thing we all share
Namely that of disease
The disease
Of time.

© Andrew Lander

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NEIGHBOURS

Growing up
she was a neighbour.
Kind of got together
Occasionally,
petted and fondled
a little too young
to go
all the way.
But I liked her.
She made me
Laugh.

I fancied another
neighbour more.
My ‘sort’
long dark hair
impish features
leggy
had a bit
Of a reputation
for giving head
though
I was never
fortunate enough
to corroborate
this.

I saw her years later
when I came back
to visit

had been working
in London
she was in
the local video
store
dating
the skin head
owner.

‘Hello,’
she said.

We caught up.
I said I was working
In London.

‘I thought you sounded posh,’
she said.

God! I thought
how provincial
some people
remain.

© Andrew Lander

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LOVE & DEATH

‘There goes another flower box,’
I said, as we watched a funeral cortege
pass by.
‘That’s a nice way of putting it,’ you said.
‘It’s what I see,’ I replied.
‘And how do you see me?’ you asked.
‘I’d rather not say, I said.
How can you simplify the universe.

© Andrew Lander

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MY TOMBSTONE

On my tombstone
I want the words
‘success’
Neatly carved.

Think about it.

© Andrew Lander

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FALL OF THE LEAF

Nearing the end
he clings to nature

from his study
he observes
the fall of the leaf
the silhouetted crow
pitched against
an ashen sky

the moment it seems
stripped of all vanity
he sees his place

© Andrew Lander

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