Today’s choice

Previous poems

Winifred Mok

 

 

 

Wildflowers

No one has ever told me to
Go back to where you came from

Perhaps it’s because
I look like
I’m just passing through

They know I know
I don’t look like I belong here

I fall into the category of guest
The perpetual rambler
A forever tourist

All’s fine: roaming landscapes
Of poppy, cornflower, ox-eye daisy

The native ecology of
Where I might have come from
Versus where I want to be

 

Winifred Mok is a poet, filmmaker and podcaster. Based in the UK, her writing has appeared in various publications, and her poetry has been shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize.

Note: Some wildflowers that are considered ‘native’ are actually neophytes — a plant introduced into an area relatively recently and has since become naturalised (in the context of the UK and Europe, this is defined from 1492).

Eithne Longstaff

On the road to Belfast today, I failed
to recognise my father. I saw a flamingo

by the Tamnnamore turn off, but paid
little regard as it took off…

Kerry Darbishire

Imagine a spring day drawing out possibilities
the newness of life, sisters in long skirts digging
tangled ground, breaking bones and loam wild