Tired
My aunt was tired of everything in sight.
Even her head between her hands was heavy,
Like a melon, its rind screwed on too tight.
She grew into a place to hang her jewelry,
And her piano hands were forgetful
At the keys. Play me a song, O play me one,
I would say, not knowing how impossible
This was. She turned and looked at me, between
Unplayed notes, and told me how each day
Was like another, how the time meant nothing
Because no person there was family.
She did like getting her hair done, and bathing
Was nice, the dust-cloud of her baby powder
The smell of what was once important to her.
Even her head between her hands was heavy,
Like a melon, its rind screwed on too tight.
She grew into a place to hang her jewelry,
And her piano hands were forgetful
At the keys. Play me a song, O play me one,
I would say, not knowing how impossible
This was. She turned and looked at me, between
Unplayed notes, and told me how each day
Was like another, how the time meant nothing
Because no person there was family.
She did like getting her hair done, and bathing
Was nice, the dust-cloud of her baby powder
The smell of what was once important to her.
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