emerald earrings

misfortune from nowhere
stooped like a peregrine
folded, weaponized

slicing away before from after
as clean as cutting butter
or severing heads

half the house is collapsed
open to the weather
defenceless, astounded

the other half upright, its insides
exposed like a doll’s house
but staunch, refusing to fall

I also refuse
I will put on my emerald earrings
the ones shaped like dragonflies

this little rowan seedling
I will plant for us all
here, by the door

 

 

 

Mandy Macdonald firmly believes that poetry can change the world, even just a little. You will find her recent work in Poetry Scotland, Pennine Platform, wildfire words, and elsewhere. Her pamphlet The temperature of blue (2020) is available from bluesalt.co.uk.