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Katrina Naomi

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Storm in Wirksworth Churchyard

There is something urgent about
              this morning, the white rose bush
ravaged, an old lady 
              in her petticoats, feathers, lace
sprawled beneath her.

Blackbirds unsettled, even 
              the shaven-headed man with the swallows
on his neck has stayed away. 
              Waves break across the tombstones,
a bell warns of worse to come.

There’ll be a reckoning. The light 
              hardly knows how to settle before it is blown
elsewhere. A plastic noise as the air vent skips 
              clean through the window.
In the cellar an uncorking.

Somewhere in the house a door cracks 
              its shriek of lightning.
The silver birch goes on fighting 
              itself, a small civil war
in the corner of the yard.

A roaring from the yew, a shifting 
              of shadows. Leaves come away early,
their fistful of daggers rip 
              into the oak of the church door.
A tolling, way way out at sea.

Katrina Naomi’s pamphlet Lunch at the Elephant & Castle (2008) is published by Templar Poetry. Her first collection, The Girl with the Cactus Handshake will be published in Autumn 2009 by Templar Poetry.

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