Carole King
First-Born
When he lay sleeping, sometimes I would kiss
the softness of those bluebell lids whose sheer
translucence could not hide the blue of his
perfection, even over–painted here
—a palimpsest beneath a silken shutter.
Sometimes my warm breath roused him; and the wings
of tiny Field Blue butterflies would flutter
open—gentle, gauze–like, powdery things—
startled by movement, sensing with surprise
my presence, as I drowned in pools so deep
and gazed into those lapislazuleyes
concealed so cunningly by blissful sleep,
wondering at the priceless prize I'd won;
rocking the cradle of my baby son.
Carolyn King
Ventnor, Isle of Wight
the softness of those bluebell lids whose sheer
translucence could not hide the blue of his
perfection, even over–painted here
—a palimpsest beneath a silken shutter.
Sometimes my warm breath roused him; and the wings
of tiny Field Blue butterflies would flutter
open—gentle, gauze–like, powdery things—
startled by movement, sensing with surprise
my presence, as I drowned in pools so deep
and gazed into those lapislazuleyes
concealed so cunningly by blissful sleep,
wondering at the priceless prize I'd won;
rocking the cradle of my baby son.
Carolyn King
Ventnor, Isle of Wight
Page(s) 25
magazine list
- Features
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- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
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- Atlas
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- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
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- Fabric
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- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
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- 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