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PNSpring16

France

In the taxi from the airport I tried to say my friends are there already. I tried to say I’ll need to get back again somehow. In the restaurant we remained English, suitcases at our feet. He stopped for a wild boar dead in the road. I arranged my face for tragedy, but he treated […]

A Therapist Learns about Nesting

One bird from fence to grass to fence to holly tree to wall to grass to holly tree brown flicker, lick of red a second still an eye. Crows come and go two magpies chacker, flap. I spy on holly – branches, sprigs. No splotch of knotted shreds. Daybreak till late whirr swoop from seat […]

The houses are coming

from behind hoardings when you’re not looking, trying to live up to the artist’s impression. Down one-way streets the wrong way they slip to the tune of infill and quotas and backhanders. They’re coming to a field or a muddy ditch near you, seeking out scout huts to flatten or a football pitch to excavate, […]

The House is Not a House

1. Seen from the top of the ridge, the house is a charm hanging between horseshoe and slipper around my wrist. You marvel at the silver roses carved around a tiny silver door.   2. The house opens its mouth when told to. Syrupy light trickles through its teeth. A fairy-tale wind blows a curse […]

Her place in life

Knew it was my mother’s last day. In hospital, asleep. Peacefully, not in any distress. The nurses said she had some time yet. Suddenly felt I must go up the hill, that winding lane through the woods. Emerged into sunlight at the top. There it was nestling in its small valley, the old stone farmhouse […]

Expedition, 1972

After days spent high on the route she carries down sanitary pads to burn on a base-camp fire. The circle of men falls silent. Here in the Karakoram – Black Gravel in Turkic – she walks off their maps    into whiteness

Supported by Arts Council England

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