Prison Scenes
Take a piece of satin, blue sheen,
appliqué to cool shadows
under a generosity of willow.
So many ducks this year.
You’ll have your work cut out
to stitch them into the scene.
Whole families of them squatting
on the green between prison houses.
Forty, fifty, more. Take a piece
of brown worsted, stitch
a mother duck, purposeful,
proud, her neck and head stiff
like an umbrella handle. Some
of the women rise early to feed them
on yesterday’s sandwiches.
It’s against the rules but they know
mothers needs encouragement,
need a little help along the way.
Take a piece of white thread,
stitch a discreet trail of breadcrumbs
leading away from the window.
***
In the hour’s Association Time
they give their bodies up to sun,
some stick-straight, some
curved, coiled, clustered
on the embankment –
a reckoning in roman numerals,
a cyphered message
that can only be read from the moon.
***
Take a piece of silk thread,
spin it to a dull pallor,
scar it with snags,
pin it to a bed
in the shape of a woman.
Joy Winkler is currently touring with her verse/drama TOWN. She works in prisons and with community groups in the North West. Her most recent collection is On The Edge. www.joywinkler.co.uk