Honey
With word getting back to us of a very real chance
of pestilence by day and pestilence
by night, the father would go ‘on forays’ to the ring-fence,
small-talking the guards, checking on how things stood
for anyone making a break for the open road.
The mother braided her hair and laid in food:
he was the pioneer, she was the goodwife,
him with his father’s rook-gun, her with her mother’s recipe
for hunter’s stew, with her flour and yeast, with her longlife
milk, with rice, with wrasse, with huss, beef jerky, turkey,
lemons, lemon curd, cured ham, lamb both on and off
the bone, pizza, pesto, pasta, tabouleh, flageolet
beans, beans both baked and green, green
tomatoes, sprats in brine, Cheddar, Cheshire, the locally-grown
cabbage and kale, salt beef, salt pork, Saltines, salt
both sea- and Cerebos, apples, apricots, biscuits, brisket, brawn...
Each day more of the same, with no one to call a halt:
his honeyed words to the wide-eyed sentries,
her shelf on shelf of honey, the ‘product of many countries’.
of pestilence by day and pestilence
by night, the father would go ‘on forays’ to the ring-fence,
small-talking the guards, checking on how things stood
for anyone making a break for the open road.
The mother braided her hair and laid in food:
he was the pioneer, she was the goodwife,
him with his father’s rook-gun, her with her mother’s recipe
for hunter’s stew, with her flour and yeast, with her longlife
milk, with rice, with wrasse, with huss, beef jerky, turkey,
lemons, lemon curd, cured ham, lamb both on and off
the bone, pizza, pesto, pasta, tabouleh, flageolet
beans, beans both baked and green, green
tomatoes, sprats in brine, Cheddar, Cheshire, the locally-grown
cabbage and kale, salt beef, salt pork, Saltines, salt
both sea- and Cerebos, apples, apricots, biscuits, brisket, brawn...
Each day more of the same, with no one to call a halt:
his honeyed words to the wide-eyed sentries,
her shelf on shelf of honey, the ‘product of many countries’.
Page(s) 14-15
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The