1. Ozymandias Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed
Ozymandias
Wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
The lone and level sands stretch far away

2. London Mind-forged manacles Runs in blood down palace walls
Every black’ning church appalls
In every infant’s cry of fear

3. The Prelude I found a little boat tied to a willow tree
My boat went weaving through the water like a swan
The Prelude
Small circles glittering idly in the moon
A huge peak, black and huge

4. My Last Duchess The white mule she rode with round the terrace
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall
Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse…
Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt

5. Charge of the Light Brigade Into the valley of death
Cannon to right of them…
Rode the six hundred

6. Exposure Merciless iced east winds that knive us
We heart the mad gusts tugging on the wire
Exposure
Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow
We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy

7. Storm On The Island Spits like a tame cat turned savage
We are prepared: we build our houses squat
Storm On The Island
The sea is company, exploding comfortably

8. Bayonet Charge Suddenly he awoke and was running
Sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest
Bayonet Charge
A yellow hare that rolled like a flame
He lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm

9. Remains His bloody life in my bloody hands
We get sent out to tackle looters raiding a bank
Remains
The drink and the drugs won’t flush him out
Some distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land

10. Poppies Poppies have already been placed on individual war graves
The world overflowing like a treasure chest
Poppies
I went into your bedroom, released a song bird from its cage.
Leaned against it like a wishbone

11. War Photographer Fields which don’t explode beneath the feet
In his darkroom, he is finally alone
War Photographer
Tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers
A half-formed ghost

12. Tissue Might fly our lives like paper kites
Maps too. The sun shines through their borderlines
Tissue
The kind you find in well-used books

13. The Emigree I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.
I have no passport, there’s no way back at all
The Emigree
My city comes to me in its own white plane
It may be sick with tyrants

14. Checkin’ Out Me History
Dem tell me bout de man who discover de balloon
Bandage up me eye with me own history
Checkin’ Out Me History
De cow who jump over de moon
But dem never tell me bout Nanny de maroon

15. Kamikaze With a flask of water, a samurai sword
A tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous.
My mother never spoke again in his presence
The dark shoals of fishes flashing silver