Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Poetry Library Southbank Centre - The Poetry Library housing the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre

« Previous item
Contents of this issue
Next item »

Leah Fritz

print this page

Postscript to an Obit (i.m. Louise Armstrong)

Gee, I’m sad she’s dead.
            She wouldn’t like it either,
                       being dead. Some people do,
                       or think they will before they go.
                       Some people try. Some succeed.
            But not Louise.
                        It isn’t that she loved life all that much.
                        She was ill for years. And always
                        angry at some rotten deal, some
                        body pissed her off, even me
                        sometimes, I think.
            She liked her anger. Even when
            she found it hard to breathe, adrenalin
            kept her alive. On the phone
            6,000 miles away, she raised bloody hell.

Gee, it’s hard to think she’s dead.           Gee.


 

‘Louise Armstrong, who has died aged 71, wrote the book that exposed how commonplace but hidden child sexual abuse within the family really is. “Kiss Daddy Goodnight: A Speak-out on Incest” (1978) is a collection of the personal narratives of women who had survived incest... The book galvanised feminists to organise against child sexual abuse...’ – Obituary in The Guardian by Julie Bindel, 24 September 2008.

Poems for this issue were selected by Penelope Shuttle

 

Page(s) 54

Back to top