Kate Scott
One day you will be this girl
One day you will be this girl
sitting in front of me,
so slight, so nervous,
her voice petalling the air,
a tendril reaching out for light,
unsure of where to wind.
People will lie to you, people will
stick their stories like thorns into your
unquestioning skin,
you won't know enough to see the weeds
from the healthy growth.
You will be torn down, you will
come up again the following year
stronger, but the outer layer a little harder,
the shoots less eager to break the earth.
I want to touch this girl who isn't mine,
I want to warn her,
I want to plant my arms on her shoulders
sink her safe into the ground so
she can weather the seasons ahead.
But I say nothing,
the garden wall can't keep everything out
or hold everything in.
I hold you close,
my tiny bloom.
Darling, already
my bricks begin to crack.
sitting in front of me,
so slight, so nervous,
her voice petalling the air,
a tendril reaching out for light,
unsure of where to wind.
People will lie to you, people will
stick their stories like thorns into your
unquestioning skin,
you won't know enough to see the weeds
from the healthy growth.
You will be torn down, you will
come up again the following year
stronger, but the outer layer a little harder,
the shoots less eager to break the earth.
I want to touch this girl who isn't mine,
I want to warn her,
I want to plant my arms on her shoulders
sink her safe into the ground so
she can weather the seasons ahead.
But I say nothing,
the garden wall can't keep everything out
or hold everything in.
I hold you close,
my tiny bloom.
Darling, already
my bricks begin to crack.
Page(s) 6
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