Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Poetry Library Southbank Centre - The Poetry Library housing the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre

« Previous item
Contents of this issue
Next item »

Ruth Valentine

print this page

Handprints

So the family went back home after the war,
and covered the slashed upholstery, and took
to the peacemakers on patrol the red notebook
naming the people held there, and painted over
the pencilled dates on the wall, but couldn’t cover
with four coats of gloss the marks on the kitchen door,

handprints, that rose to a surface of faded pink
or lilac-grey, broad hands, the splayed fingers,
the cushioned square of the palm, one prisoner’s hunger
for the smells of lamb-stew and lemon peel, the face
of a child eating a plum, a woman’s voice
calling for quiet; his last longing, to sink

into their days, their muscles and piss and breath,
into their work and their lovemaking. Back to their birth.

Errata
In issue number 65, two poems appeared with some misprints, and we reprint both below in their correct versions. Ruth Valentine’s biographical note should also have read that her collection, The Tide Table, appeared in 1998, and not 2006, as stated: our apologies to both for the errors.

Page(s) 152

Back to top