Anne Berkeley
Her Vase
She watched him slap
a lump of pink wet slabber
on the disc and hold it
centred with his fist, coax it
higher with the heel of his hand
spinning rings round a new
space, his foot steady
as a tick-tock on the knocking treadle,
grey eye fixed on the spin.
She saw his butcher’s apron
and the spatter
on the black hairs of his arms
then he’d slow the pot
into focus
regard it imperturbably
for invisible flaw
crumple it back
into the plastic bowl
flip the wheel clean with a palette knife
start again.
Her turn came.
At first, her hands could not contain
the lurch of it. When she learned
to disregard him, look
to the clay alone,
then past it, through its shiftings,
she found the slippery centre,
the nerve to keep it there.
Page(s) 34
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