Mike Loveday
Visiting Hours
She reeled at the weight
of the morning, her eyelids
opened and closed with effort
like the slow doors of a museum.
She was mostly silent.
Every now and then
the word "No" sprawled
out of her mouth, rolling
across her lips. Or she'd moan
gibberish - "thank you
for your big nose", "get me
that drink of cabbage".
Her purple tongue flickered
and danced like a lizard.
We sat at her bedside, worried
by sallowed skin, blotches
marking her forearms.
But cheerful gypsy bangles swung
from her ears, and her hair
was still full and wild.
A pale curtain divided us
from other beds in the ward.
My brother held her hand
and she squeezed his like a sponge.
Dad watched, familiar and immune.
Each visit her eyes sparkled
less and less. I had to leave her
and leave her. Later I learned
it was me that was dead.
Page(s) 14
magazine list
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- Atlas
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
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- Fabric
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- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
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- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
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- 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