Acts of Repair
Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?
(Tupac Shakur)
You wouldn’t believe how quick they grew —
Our babies were men now. Lifting bags of concrete
they rebuilt cities, slab by slab, reinforcing cracks.
Cleaning debris from foundations where faultline cracks
had split history and the world collapsed. Concrete
everywhere – waiting to be fashioned into blocks….And as we waited, tree shoots grew
into trees. Our sons hefted huge lumps of concrete,
our daughters too — though they were filling other cracks
by then…teaching their own daughters how bear a heavy load. They grew
new babies. Grew a generation to populate those concrete blocks; to paper over hairline cracks.
Katie Beswick is a writer based in south London. She publishes across forms — criticism, scholarship, prose fiction and poetry. Recent and forthcoming poetry publications include: Orphic Review, Euonia Review, Mukoli: The Magazine for Peace, English and Harpy Hybrid. In March 2024 she exhibited a collection of poetry under the title ‘Being Slaggy‘ as part of Camden People’s Theatre SPRINT festival. She teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London.