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WAREHOUSE

for Derek Jarman

Tom McLaughlin

To sleep inside 

a greenhouse in 

the centre of 

an empty space 

while the river 

flings its patterns 

on the ceiling 

is to lean your 

body against 

the brickwork of 

the suburban 

bedroom that housed 

your teenage years 

until you feel 

a wall give way

To fuck behind 

a pane of glass

with a stranger

or a friend while 

raised high on a 

wooden platform

while the midday 

sun douses you 

in piercing light

somewhat dims the

memory of 

nuns who always 

came at night to 

interrupt the 

lovely feeling

Glass walls hold me 

with such grace that 

when the phone rings — 

febrile in the 

morning halflight

radiating 

in waves of pain — 

I do not think 

but plunge my hand 

clean through the glass 

and hear the sound 

of my childhood 

crash around me 

in fragments that 

lodge in my skin 

Tom McLaughlin is a London-based Northern Irish poet. He completed an MA in Creative Writing, with Distinction, at Royal Holloway University and is now undertaking a practice-based PhD at Surrey University on queer domestic space. His poetry pamphlet Open Houses was published in 2021 by Marble Press. His poems have featured in publications such as MMU’s Write Where We Are Now, Porridge Magazine, Alchemy Spoon, and Channel Magazine. You can find out more at his website: tommclaughlin.uk