JUNE POETS

SHE WEEPS

By

Lauren Sheerman

Feathered friend

Full of fury and fertility

Stomach stark, vast

Decaying wilderness with

Heart, salt sanded down

Molecules murdered

Aborted aorta

Swollen eyes, cried to bone.

Woman weeping, why?

Weaver of webs, cradles clouds in

Crooks and nooks

Wonderful woman weeping, why?

Child-less lady, lost to Loki

Walk for 9 worlds

Bare foot, stars guide

Hel

Descending, finding a son

Amongst the realm of

Sallow skin showing skeleton.

Ebony bones they are

Fire burns behind, you can see

See the fire burning between the crevices of such structures

Son, oh son

I lost.

FATHER

By

Lauren Sheerman

Half a pink, bitter grapefruit I brought to you in bed
with sugar sprinkled, sweetened snow
the sour, pulp-packed orange juice and cold tea at the side.

daddy
I never knew you were not permanent.
Down down, wither wither
you went
at the fault of someone else you had your expense
paid with the black curtain that did fall around you
brave brave, you marched, marched towards
your death.

daddy
I am sorry
I never knew you, your presence
like some absent shadow
hidden from a stupid little girl
by blindly bulging … bastard 

slow, ever so slow, so slow, but it never stopped
vessels carry disease Murder. Murder. Murder

daddy
I am sorry I never listened
time was plenty back then. Never stopped

and I didn’t think we would have to fit
a lifetime into 13 years
I could not talk for 3
I could not

So I am sorry, daddy, father, my pops
In summer garden, you rest, now and time-sands still sweep onto the shore

resting, under ash-ridden tree, hiding tears in urns.

Together now in the dimly dug hole where nobody else can see.