Moving again! I can't take a lot of books with me. Instead of taking the poetry anthologies in which some of my poems were published. I'm writing them here, a record of when and where they were published.
Specially commended 2011 by the Welsh Poetry Competition.
Published in 2011, The Welsh Poetry Competition pamphlet.
Stiches
Giving birth to her
I was torn pieces of flesh
sewed together with nylon thread
between blood flooding and cord cutting
skin slipping away from skin
untidy cross stiches done with haste
new thresholds of pain and love missing,
peaking, dancing a sloppy waltz.
It took a while before
two rivals of slit open skin
forgave and forgot,
integrated beautifully with nylon.
Five years later
sitting on the edge of the bed
last chore of the day
hands tired
I unpick stiches
pulling with my teeth
redundant binding
messy hemming done with haste
end of string refusing needle's eye
making her school skirt fit.
baby growing out of her clothes,
mother ageing
another stich undone,
another knot released.
