The Mathematics of Past and Future Selves
There’s a small child sobbing, oppressed in her Sunday best,
red velvet dress, patent mirrors scuffed. There’s a bear,
one eye estranged, dangling free. There’s a shade
on the path, looming up in sunlight. They are waiting.
In the kitchen, china and loose leaf, the wedding service.
Dundee. When they call, she will turn through the years –
skitter up the path in a flash of dust. Their eyes are sepia.
Yellowed in foxed frames. In the snicket that runs between,
heroes shadow walk. I think she will be alright,
she looks the strong type, but it’s way too early to tell.
Ali Jones’ work has appeared in The Interpreter’s House, Proletarian Poetry, Ink Sweat and Tears, Snakeskin Poetry, Atrium, Café Writers, Laldy, Green Parent magazine and The Guardian. Her pamphlets Heartwood and Omega are forthcoming with Indigo Dreams Press.