Glee
Just as in the song she’d
take out the ironing
to get at the cupboard
to open the dishwasher
unload the racks
go back to the table
to pick up the plates
to clear off the crumbs
bin the crusts, move
the marmite
play gogos
So the words fall down
all over it, the crying child
who won’t wait.
The sea is watching
with hooded eyes,
a shout that is also
a cake, a splodge
of cream, a shaking
of crumbs.
Catching my legs, wanting
me now.
Carolyn Oulton’s A Child, a Death and the Making of the Fairy Tale Woman was published by Bewrite Books in 2011 and her new collection Accidental Fruit will be published by Worple Press in autumn 2016. http://www.carolynoulton.co.uk/