Liz Palmer-Smith
Conflicting messages
I have tried to explain, but it isn’t easy.
In the morning my tongue trips
On the hussle-bussle, the busy rustle
Of your newspaper,
The crack of breaking toasted bread.
At night in bed I have tried to explain,
But the covers twist into choking ropes,
The hypnotic click of your clock
Stops my tongue from talking,
And induces deep sleep.
Instead, I try to tell you of my day in this diary.
Today, your daughter spoke in tongues.
She gently mouthed each toy in the box
Discovering, uncovering each secret name and meaning.
Holding it high above her baby bead
Reverently,
Before casting the object out into the world
Newly named, christened with her kisses.
In the afternoon, with her brother and me,
We travelled to ancient India.
Our cotton tent pegged secure across the sofa,
The heating up high.
He patiently painted the world into being.
A boy’s genius, strong strokes of colour
Rippled across his landscape paper,
Blue beings beside hot reds and yellows
Shimmered heat haze above the greens,
While the sweet scent of frangipani invaded our tent.
She transformed the canary with a wish
Transcending his inner dreams of grandeur,
As your son mined plant pots
Seeking diamonds and precious pebbles.
These colours crumble from my mind in the evening.
I view your grey suit and realise I must be your me,
Tomorrow, your children become Pharaohs of Egypt,
Perhaps I can explain then.
Page(s) 69
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