Cemetery
Death lives on a hillside
with a dirty virgin
an angel with her face smashed in
a baby who is “safe with Jesus”
an anchor wrapped in a chain
as if Hope would escape if it wasn’t bolted down
overhead the woods
where you can get lost
the ivy-coloured woods
the breakneck stony-pathed woods
Melanie Branton is a spoken word artist from North Somerset with two published collections: Can You See Where I’m Coming From? (Burning Eye, 2018) and My Cloth-Eared Heart (Oversteps, 2017). Her work has appeared in journals including Ink, Sweat & Tears, Bare Fiction, The Frogmore Papers, Atrium and London Grip. Blog: https://melaniebranton.wordpress.com/