BRYN FORTEY

A TAXI DRIVER ON MARS

by Bryn Fortey

212 Caerleon Road, Newport, South Wales NP19 7GQ

Outlaw Chapbooks Press Limited Edition

Bryn Fortey has known me long enough to know that science fiction poetry isn't my natural reading habitat. But only a fool or a pedant would deny that there's immense satisfaction to be had following Bryn into the strange worlds he creates: a narrator witnessing the death of a massiccia on planet Safari, 'twin suns filtered through clotted skies' in 'Chaser & Chased', the cabbie in the title poem who teaches himself the history of all four World Wars and The Rock & Roll Years because 'there's not much call for taxis on Mars' (made me think of the much-missed poet Dave Church), or the fact-finding extra-terrestrial in a pub drinking beer in 'Talking to the Alien'. It's 'the only thing that makes life bearable/ on this godforsaken planet,' the alien says, mired in his loneliness. There are two poems in this chapbook that deserve special mention, however. In 'So' the narrator attempts to make a robot boy to replace his own, after, we assume, a tragedy. And 'Satellite L'Amour' is a poem of intense feeling and bold imagery: 'one day I will emerge/ at the very moment of creation/ to explode and expand in a turbulent mass/ spinning around a brand new sun.' I knew Bryn was good. He always has been. But that good?! (BH)