Mimi Khalvati
La Belle Dame
Why brood on willow water? Surely hope
is something more than rope to hang a mood
on willow. Hang garlands on the stair! Come.
(Wainscot mice will steal a swatch that dwarfs them
in their lair, quick as any water rat
to spot the knot or head of pin to show
with monumental wit what good design
can do with trophies from the tide … ) Come in.
I’ll sweep the hearth; you make yourself at home.
Let’s close the shutters: we’ll mull things over
and leave pale knights to loiter where they will
(moon along the banks where dreams of virgins
hold them in thrall to their own misgivings…)
We’ll call the squirrels in: Lets have a ball.
Here’s my store I’ll share with you: an apple,
a loaf I baked myself, a nut or two.
Dusk will soon be gone and tonight we’ll see
how big the moon is. Come here by the fire.
Let me smell your hair. Weeds are hanging there,
I’ll pick them out. Next time you’ll know better
than to brood. Those banks of sedge and sorrel
never did do any good … water’s filthy…
Come on, there’s a good girl. Keep your head down.
(Look! I told you! Here they come, scurrying.)
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