The Orangery by Gale Burns (Lucent Dreaming Issue 8)

Down the veranda steps, along the flint path,
past the dry sand beds is the Orange House,
where oranges have never been grown.
My cousins set a chair and three heat-light bulbs,
screwed to asbestos to make a tropical seat.
The plan: my grandfather, going blind and deaf,
will recover from winter; will relive his
Indian days in light and warmth, maybe smoke
a Camel or two. Whether it is the look,
like an electric chair, or its distance from
the manorial house, he doesn’t seem keen.
One morning, the warm seat vacant,
the Orangery glows, lit by atomic oranges.

Gale Burns was born in Montreal, and brought up in London, England. He won an Indjija International Poetry Prize (Serbia) in 2017 and has been a Hawthornden Fellow. He is writer in residence at Kingston University, London and runs the acclaimed Shuffle Poetry series.
@galeburns | www.galeburns.co.uk

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Lucent Dreaming is an independent creative writing magazine publishing beautiful, imaginative and surreal short stories, poetry and artwork from emerging authors and artists worldwide. Our aim is to encourage creativity and to help writers reach publication! Subscribe to Lucent Dreaming now, support us on Patreon and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.