Today’s choice
Previous poems
Jan Swann
Ladybird, Ladybird
After Paula Rego’s Nursery Rhymes
You seem very far from home
and who would after all choose a grit pocked
pavement to languish on when
they could be eating aphids in
my overgrown garden?
Mother Mary isn’t coming my way it seems
not in this neighbourhood at least.
But you really should be worried. Infanticidal
stuff is happening while
you amble along, deliberately casual, taking
in the scenery, navigating unrepentant snail
trails, choosing not
to helicopter the hell out of here.
Can’t you smell the fire in the fields?
You haven’t landed on my clothes in years.
Why not try it now so I can purse my lips
and let my gusty wind fritter you away back home.
I’ll trade you just the one wish.
Jan Swann is a Welsh poet now living in Bristol. She performs at open mics and as a featured poet at events in and around the city. Jan has appeared on BBC Upload and been published in various online magazines such as Nuthatch Magazine, Black Nore Review, Apricot Press, and in the anthologies Whispered Word Poems, Bonds and Poets Walk.
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Not the boring twin.
Not even benign.
This is a proper island:
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Dilys Wyndham Thomas
we walk through the exhibition hall lost
amongst water-logged bones, a sunk haul lost
Ruth Lexton
It is late at night and the kettle is boiling,
a quire of steam fanning out in the white kitchen
you are holding me as if I were your girl again
Stewart Carswell
It’s the house at the end.
White paint flakes off the front gate,
wood rots beneath.
Chris Kinsey
Hey cat, you’re doing really well,
three fields stalked and only one to go.