The 2013 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival runs for the 8th-10th November and this weekend Ink Sweat & Tears is featuring poems on the theme of ‘Beauty’ which is the subject of the IS&T-supported Discussions and Short Takes this year. Find out more about the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival here
Cathedrals
each morning we build cathedrals, we decorate them with sea shells and eyelash salt, warm light and dreams of butterflies.
but by nightfall nothing remains but trampled sand castles, coppery, tarnished green, a fear of the night that drowns us, then the sea that washes it away.
each morning we build cathedrals, we decorate them with gold dust and sea salt kisses, chocolates and silver rings and summer dreams of flying flowers.
but by nightfall nothing remains but a tramp and his dog pissing in winters doorway, a fear of the fear as the blood of Friday night, washes us away.
each morning we build cathedrals, we decorate them with violet dawn light and dreams of flying, and dreams of dreams of flying.
but by nightfall nothing remains but a list of things to do and a mesh of things unanswered, and the dreadful knowledge that we are not what we intend to do – we are what we already did, intentionally.
and each morning we build cathedrals, this one is made of sandpaper, we decorate it with glitter, phosphorus and ribbons, we ink and hand print our best intentions, we brush it with milk and prick it with a fork and bake it.
by dusk, nothing remains but a rusty caravan, empty balloons are ripped condoms, there’s the fear of the plump shadow, and the vodka and the runts wash all your wishes down, with the laughter like a drain.
this morning you built a cathedral, you rose, you bloomed with prick, kick and thorns, this one has a thick skin of rubber, it will be as soft and yielding as time, forgiving and elastic as love, love, over and over, again, love, over and over again.
Salena Godden‘s latest collection Under The Pier was published by hip-indie imprint Nasty Little Press in 2011. Most recently her work has appeared in Shortfire Press, Illustrated Ape Magazine, Trespass Magazine, Paraphilia, Rising, Teller Magazine, The Mechanics Institute Review published by Birkbeck University, Picador’s Punk Fiction and Parthian Books Raconteur. She runs Book Club Boutique in London, and this is her blog.