How weather affects them
Accustomed to the yes and no of things,
one day she’s brimming, mercurial,
the next, a dish of mud.
When it’s wet he remembers drought.
When there’s only dust,
he wants rain to fill the shallows.
Winds have scoured her surface,
sunlight has bleached her.
She knows the tight smother of ice.
He positions his boot with care,
lets his weight slow-shatter the crust.
He enjoys the pressure, the give.
Clare Best’s first full collection, Excisions, was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize, 2012. CELL is due out any minute with Frogmore Press. Recent work has appeared in Envoi, Under the Radar, The Interpreter’s House. http://clarebest.co.uk Blog: https://selfportraitwithoutbreasts.wordpress.com
This poem was first published in The Interpreters House no. 58, March 2015.