Joe Carrick-Varty

What Does a Month of Sundays Mean?

i have a very small lake         would you like
to help me move it from one end
of the garden to the other honestly
don’t worry about the fish their sleep
is guilty and entirely its own problem
oh and the blue whales we get a few
of them pass through i’ll take you down

tomorrow night do you ever worry

about shame blue whales are naked

even when they sleep i tend to just

walk around a lot did you know blue
whales sleep upside down like sky-
scrapers sunk hospitals tipped over
honestly most of the time i just want
to imagine the word Sunday picture it
in the water or failing the word
the smell of rain on Sun- day the hills
purpling above the garden all of this
more or less relaxed and OK and yes

Joe Carrick-Varty is the author of More Sky (Carcanet Press, 2023).