Kate Ling
Message Left on a Silk Balloon
There is money in the marmalade jar
in the cupboard by the kitchen door.
There are spare keys to the car
and all the doors behind the flour.
Batteries, matches and candles are
in a box under the stairs.
If hunting in the dark for the marmalade jar,
beware of the mezze luna.
But children, I tested you today
and found you can’t make toast.
I’ll teach you toast. We’ll not
be tricked by Time, who moves
so slowly round our kitchen clock
we haven’t thought to study his uneven
hands, but measure out the future
in the sleeps it takes to get there.
Let us face the days I haven’t skilled
you for. Let’s start with the tin opener.
No, let’s start with why the moon
is there, this city sky, and where the stars are.
in the cupboard by the kitchen door.
There are spare keys to the car
and all the doors behind the flour.
Batteries, matches and candles are
in a box under the stairs.
If hunting in the dark for the marmalade jar,
beware of the mezze luna.
But children, I tested you today
and found you can’t make toast.
I’ll teach you toast. We’ll not
be tricked by Time, who moves
so slowly round our kitchen clock
we haven’t thought to study his uneven
hands, but measure out the future
in the sleeps it takes to get there.
Let us face the days I haven’t skilled
you for. Let’s start with the tin opener.
No, let’s start with why the moon
is there, this city sky, and where the stars are.
Page(s) 19
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