Small Dawn Song

This is just to say Thank You

to the tick
of the downstairs clock
like a blind man’s stick
tap-tip on through the dark

to the lone
silly blackbird who sang
before dawn when no one
should have been listening

to the wheeze
and chink of the milk float
like an old nightwatchman clinking keys
and clearing his throat

Six o’clock and all’s well
Six o’clock and all’s well

The night’s been going on
so long
so long

This is just to say Thank You.

Copyright: from The All-Nite Cafe (Faber, 1993), © Philip Gross 1993, used by permission of the author

More about this poem

Philip writes brilliantly imaginative poetry about places, people and subjects which at first seem ordinary but which he reveals to be ...

Learn more
Glossary

Explore Similar Poems

Also by Philip Gross

By Tags

Featured in the Archive

Close