Door
I opened the door
A girl stood there her blonde hair drifting in the wind
She said
My mother told me not to go to the mountains
she said there is nothing to eat in the mountains
and she said I will get lost in the mountains
and I will slip and fall
and a bear will eat me
or I will die of cold
And my father told me not to go to the sea
he said there is nothing to drink in the sea
and he said I will get lost in the sea
and I will get eaten by sharks
or I will be swept far away
and I will drown
And she stoops there undecided
between sea and mountain
her white hair wild in the wind
And the wind howls over the chimney
like breath blown over a bottle
I say
You’d better come in
Anne Berkeley was a member of The Joy of Six. Her collection The Men from Praga (Salt) was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney prize. She edited Rebecca Elson’s A Responsibility to Awe (Carcanet).