Herself again
for Anna
Her inner calendar says twenty-five
her outer, twice that truth;
life pitched uneasily between the two
during the dowdy mother patch.
Daughters kept her casually in touch
with make-up and fashion fads,
till, sorting out one adolescent den,
she found and played with varnishes
of countless colurs
and transfers too, stars, spots, stripes,
able to make every nail
a miniature exhibition.
Each finger tip she passionately glossed
and the self gradually reclaimed,
that liked to wear eye-catching clothes
matched against bizarre accessories
and though recaptured self-esteem meant
pleasure mixed with some unease,
she couldn’t, didn’t, want to stop.
Now, when labelled “attention-getter”
she admits to loving being looked at,
where just getting a response
satisfies her psyche.
So, both hands today, have violet nails,
except the little fingers,
gleaming with pale viridian,
while her hair is short and spiky,
flushed pink and purple through the front.
It stands up, a psychedelic cornfield,
she thinks, caressing the crop
she chooses not to show her colleagues.
Page(s) 60
magazine list
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- Lamport Court
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- North, The
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- Obsessed with pipework
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- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
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- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- Private Tutor
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- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
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- Staple
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- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
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- Ugly Tree, The
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