Mother

Her words are traffic signs
and well-trained dogs.

My words are ornamental ponds
where meaning chokes under a scum
of metaphor and idiom.

Did I mention I love her?
She’s a sharp woman.

It’s not cloth but metal
she’s cut from.

Zoë Fiander is 26 and lives in London. Her translations of Argentinian poet Alfonsina Storni can be found at www.lossness.co.uk . She is disproportionately amused by jokes about cheese and always interested to hear new and terrible ones.