Pat Earnshaw
More blessed
His breath curls into coldness.
Hands touch. He hands
a paper bag, no plate or saucer.
Half-waked she feels the stickiness
of unwrapped sweets
high in her palm,
hears feet retreating louder
and louder over the boards.
Is it his breath or hers
that fans her cheek?
Her mother’s catastrophic bulk
is always ravenous, sharp-tongued.
The children, scared, daren’t touch,
mouths watering must watch
a bowl of plums
swell into sweetness, shrink, turn
powdery green, and desiccate, corpses
rotting on hilltops
over a distant view of land.
The child feels sick watching a fly
rubbing its hands over her cold
rice-pudding. Banished to bed,
her father creeps upstairs
with biscuits, candies.
Grown-up, Better to give than to receive,
she says over and over, stealing
all blessedness from the recipient.
Hands touch. He hands
a paper bag, no plate or saucer.
Half-waked she feels the stickiness
of unwrapped sweets
high in her palm,
hears feet retreating louder
and louder over the boards.
Is it his breath or hers
that fans her cheek?
Her mother’s catastrophic bulk
is always ravenous, sharp-tongued.
The children, scared, daren’t touch,
mouths watering must watch
a bowl of plums
swell into sweetness, shrink, turn
powdery green, and desiccate, corpses
rotting on hilltops
over a distant view of land.
The child feels sick watching a fly
rubbing its hands over her cold
rice-pudding. Banished to bed,
her father creeps upstairs
with biscuits, candies.
Grown-up, Better to give than to receive,
she says over and over, stealing
all blessedness from the recipient.
Page(s) 46
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