Jenny Hamlett
Mazey Day*
She’s seated on the curb in Chapel Street.
Curved above her child, she whispers his name.
The crowd around her shimmers like waves of heat.
The baby kneads her breast, sucks at her teat.
Her eyes are drawn on strings towards his face.
She’s seated on the curb. In Chapel Street
laughter spills, glasses clink; people meet.
Phantoms. Only her small boy’s face is plain.
The crowd around her shimmers – like waves of heat
in summer. Strident bands try to compete
with her thoughts but she shrugs the noise away.
She is seated. On the curb in Chapel Street
while everyone parties, a brown child sleeps.
This new Madonna strokes his head and prays.
The crowd around her shimmers. Like waves of heat
it fades. She sits still, as the rough sky weeps.
Sunshine dissolves in a blaze of green rain.
She’s seated on the curb in Chapel Street.
The crowd around her shimmers like waves of heat.
*Mazey Day - the Penzance Feast of St John
Page(s) 84
magazine list
- Features
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- 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
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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
- 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