REYAHN KING

Strings 3

‘tongue for water’

May 2025

Throwing your wallet into the Thames

We used to trudge home saving the cost of two tickets
and as we crossed the river you'd cast your arm
towards the water and say you wanted to throw in
your wallet. It was a suggestion of carelessness
of rebellion but you clearly didn’t mean it and if you did
desperation expressed by discarding money
confused me every time.

I glance through the glass at Blackfriars
to shards of towers risen from the riverbank
shining hard at commuters and I think of your wallet.
Whenever I walk south over a bridge, I see that gesture
but of course it's become your phone that you throw. 
I read it differently, I’ll spare you how, but back then
I was that piece of leather ready to be flung.

Yacht

a mandorla of lapping boards
the sun privatised

a compass point
gently turning to tidal time

the single mast a moored pin
that holds their harbour fast

REYAHN KING is a Cape Malay re-emerging poet based in Scotland. Reyahn has been published by Poetry London and was longlisted for the 2024 Outspoken Press Emerging Poets development scheme.