Poems
Sample poem from The Elephant in the Corner (available now from http://www.tall-lighthouse.co.uk)
Unwanted Gift
You had a game you loved to play alone as a kid,
turning earth to coffee and serving
the squirrels in acorn cups.
I see you in those old spliced films,
flickering in your bathing suit by a rock pool.
I never knew your hair was blond,
you were the smallest in your class,
liked to dress up as Davey Crockett.
When I bought you the cowboy hat,
I thought I’d ride bareback across
the years I didn’t know you,
back to when we didn’t speak the same language.
I thought you’d tear open
the wrapping paper of my heart,
and smile your sunshine gap in your teeth smile.
I carried the promise of your surprise
like a warm secret inside my coat all week.
But you didn’t lassoo me with Indian war cries,
your shock was cold,
and putting it on your head, you pronounced it too big,
that it was only a joke anyway,
you’d never wear such a thing.
And it was me who felt like a child,
who’s the only one in the class,
not invited to a birthday party.
Poems from 2006
Learning To Skate
It’s bitter cold on the frozen river.
My breath cracking in clouds of confusion,
my cheeks blue flames.
I struggle to find a balance,
but my skates keep slipping.
Losing patience, my father tells me
to stay put till he returns.
I sit in a bank of snow
with the chill settling into my bones,
a certain childish stubbornness
sliding down my spine.
I stagger to my feet,
place the edge of the blade
on to the curve of ice,
and suddenly I’m gliding.
As if I had found the rhythm
of a secret dance,
a magic elegance.
Other skaters slice past
in a swirl of coats and scarves,
such speed and grace.
I stop suddenly,
a strange sense of freedom
sweeping up inside me,
the crest of a wave about to break.
I want to show my father
I can do it at last.
But he’s nowhere in sight.
And there’s only a vast whiteness
that has swallowed up the space
where I was supposed to wait.
I feel then the thinness of the ice.
Its treacherous mirrors,
scarred promises,
and a fear that turns my feet to stone.