Emily Wills
French Plait
She rouses me too soon from tangled dreams,
then stands, small ghost, in barely woken light,
grey-faced, grey-limbed. Only her pale hair gleams
reminding me of ripened barley, bright
as our brief time together. Now I know
our storylines were bound too soon, too tight.
You said you could not wait to see her grow.
You gave your likeness as a gift and left.
Her hair was short then. It seems long ago.
I start to braid. Three strands take turns for weft
and warp and centre space. The rhythmic weave
binds strongly three as one; my hands are deft.
She is impatient, as you were, to leave.
Her sleek head tosses and resists demands:
something is lost that hands cannot retrieve.
She has your eyes and hair, she has my hands,
my dreams of holding three in one embrace.
We are divided now to separate strands,
and hair grown longer, looser, hides her face.
Page(s) 10
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