A Vision
after Sujata Bhatt
the goddess of the library
extends in cloth-bound curves
along a lettered shelf
sometimes her skirts are leather
trimmed with gold, hems starred
with colophons
in other corners, she’s Make Do
and Mend, relics held together
with browning sellotape
she is all belief, all scepticism;
under her wide cloak
cities cluster, small eyes shine
she sends her children out to play
entrusting them to pockets,
shoulderbags
reliant on the curiosity
of strangers, the way every story
needs to tell itself again, again
when they return late, foxed, stained
with the juices of the world,
she tucks them back, alpha to omega
Alex Josephy lives and writes in Sussex and Italy. Her pamphlet Again Behold the Stars, was a Cinnamon Press award winner 2023. Her third full collection, ‘A Little Bridge’, will be published by Pindrop Press in 2025. www.alexjosephy.net