All entries for Friday 20 January 2012

January 20, 2012

My great-grandmother lovered the sea –

don’t tell granddad,

but his mum shivered, she proper burned cold

at the sight of that sun on that water,

white horses lacing over not-quite-blue.

She dived, bless her,

ankles up, eyes wide and salty.

Fingers raking the waves, she flamed,

and the tide flamed

a deep roaring green.

I was told she whirled like carousels

or little fish,

tangled up in such corally shapes

that her brain turned creaturely with love,

but I don’t exactly know.

But I bet it was great,

something special,

being rolled and rolling

with marine tenderness,

mad to screeching

then silence, and the shore.

She padded home, damply, after and she

cried and she told no one but her sister

why her baby’s eyes held brine and starfish.

Really liked this, I loved how you managed to fit two stories into the really short narrative: the s… by James Oyedele on this entry

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