I know who he is but do not know him by Gareth Culshaw

-
I watch him walk in the fag ash wind.
He smiles with his eyebrows at a neighbour,
then talks with a brie tongue.
He has a woodpecker stance
holds his hands in his pockets to keep
them safe from the fruit machines in pubs.
He once had a wife and two kids but lost them
in a game of poker. I know he drives
a bin wagon each morning before the school
gates open. In the morning I hear him cough out
toothpaste in the garden, then watch him clean
his ears with the beak of a sparrow he catches
in a net. He rolls a newspaper on the garden wall,
paints a cigarette between his lips, swigs a can of cola.
His burp is a tenon saw on wood.
He taps the neighbour on the shoulder and walks
away with plumb bob straightness.

---

Gareth lives in Wales. He has two collections by FutureCycle called The Miner & A Bard's View. He has been Nominated for Best of the Net and won his first poetry competition at the RS Thomas Festival 2019. More information on Gareth and his work can be found here: gcwculshaw.moonfruit.com 

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