valentine
“possessive and faithful as we are, for as long as we are”, “not a red rose or a satin heart // I give you an onion”, “It promises light” / “Cling to your knife”
In Mrs Tilscher’s Classroom (4)
“Mrs Tilscher loved you” / “Mrs Tilscher smiled, then turned away”, “The classroom glowed like a sweetshop” / “Heavy, sexy sky”, “Jumping and croaking away from the lunch queue”, “A rough boy told you how you were born”
Mrs Midas (3)
“His hands, his soft hands on my skin, his touch”, “A king on a burnished throne” / “A beautiful lemon mistake”, “We were passionate then, in those halcyon days” / “Separate beds”
Valentine (3)
“Not a red rose or a satin heart // I give you an onion”, “Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips / Possessive and faithful as we are, for as long as we are”, “It promises light” / “Cling to your knife.”
War Photographer (6)
“In his dark room he is finally alone”, “Rural England” / Running children in a nightmare heat”, “A half-formed ghost”, “Blood stained into foreign dust”, “Where he ears his living and they do not care.”, “His hands which did not tremble then, though seem to now”
Originally (6)
“My tongue shedding its skin like a snake”, “Our own country”, “Originally? And I hesitate”, “A skelf of shame”, “Your accent wrong”, “All childhood is an emmigration”
The Way My Mother Speaks (6)
“I am homesick, free, in love with the way my mother speaks.”, “The day and ever. The day and ever”, “Green, erotic pond”, “A child that stood at the end of summer”, “Too blue swapped for a cool grey”
