*
They lie with the wild
honeysuckle,
dip their hair and toes in sunshine.
*
A sliver of time – her inhale,
his blink –
silence vibrates around them.
*
She holds both the clock’s hands, wrests
Time to a
stop, while he rests in her arms.
*
The longest minutes of her life:
between
last contraction and first breath.
*
New moon watches her nuzzle her
baby’s head,
tells Time to leave them be.
*
In each lark’s heartbeat, each spider’s
stitch, each
baby’s blink, Time stretches, yawns.
Rosie Johnston’s three pamphlets (sequences of 17-syllable poems) have been published by Lapwing Publications in Belfast. She also writes fiction and journalism, facilitates writing groups in London and Cambridge and is Poet in Residence for the Cambridgeshire Wildlife Trust. www.rosie-johnston.com