Relic
Here’s a piece from the rim, curved and ridged. You can see
the faint pattern
of a line of leaves. And here’s a smooth part from the belly swell
of the side,
still glazed henna-brown on one surface.
These bits joined the handle to the body. Can you see how
they went together
where the glaze is darker here? This must have been a point
of stress
when the brimming jug was raised.
Here you can see traces of the hard, shiny glue someone used
to patch it up.
And here’s evidence of the wrong sort of adhesive. Look:
underneath this thick bit
from the base are marks from the maker’s initials.
Are you wondering how it came to be broken? Perhaps
the clay was of poor quality, or the kiln too hot or cold. Perhaps
the bottom wasn’t heavy enough to make it stable.
Could anyone reconstruct it? See what it once was?
As soon as it no longer held water it should have been abandoned.
Sweep up its bony brittleness. Clear it away.
Page(s) 14
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