from Firing Pins
Lost Things: Afghanistan (i-vii)
(iii) Insomnia
The heartbeat of the thrice-nightly Chinook
a lullaby not you tonight
lulla-lulla not yours tonight,
nevertheless, and notwithstanding.
Prince and Princess fled over molten
dunes flung down by a frantic Sandman,
the rotor blades a genie’s cough
through talcum air. A pulse,
the tempo of a mum’s palm
rubbing a child’s grazed knee.
The elsewhere-stitching and transfusing
crafting an eiderdown
from canvas, spreading hair around
her softened face in a satin sea.
Sleep dances and tightens, hard and horse-like,
a deep, thumping, velvet surrender.
Jo Young is one of the co-winners of the 2017 Ink Sweat & Tears/Café Writers Pamphlet Commission Competition and the pamphlet Firing Pins is the result of that competition.
Jo is from York. She has served in the British Army and now the Army Reserve for over twenty years. She has two young sons and this is her first pamphlet.
Jo was featured in the panel discussion ‘Confinement: Exploring Feminist Perspectives’ at Poetry in Aldeburgh yesterday evening and will be launching Firing Pins at Cafe Writers in Norwich on Monday 11th November.
You can buy Firing Pins here.