Waiting for Bluebeard
The child in the garden wears a coat
collaged from the skins of paper,
sutured with lengths of my hair.
I am inside the house
in a matching coat.
There is no one to tell us not to;
called here, as we were
by the halloo of peacocks
who turned tail
the day we arrived.
We are waiting for Bluebeard,
and when he happens here
in his grey-silver car,
he will unleash wolves
like rain.
Helen Ivory’s fourth Bloodaxe collection Waiting for Bluebeard is due next year. She is also an artist and regularly posts new work on her website http://www.helenivory.co.uk/.