New poem on Atrium
I am delighted to have a new poem over at the marvellous Atrium. Thanks ver much to the editors Holly Magill and Claire walker for choosing it. https://atriumpoetry.com/2024/09/24/all-the-mums-julia-webb/
Family Values
Sun Daddy believed that the world was small When the world knocked at his door Sun Daddy put his head under the pillow and shouted go away. Every few weeks the world knocked and Sun Daddy shouted, and so it went on for years. Sometimes when Sun Daddy was at work Moon Mother invited the […]
The Trap
I set the ALICE-TRAP at the top of the stairs hoping to trip her up and wait behind the top banister: squeezed between the wooden rails and the paraffin heater – which is off of course – we only use it in winter. Alice is a long time coming so I count spiders and then […]
That year there was a hurricane inside me
I was all arms and legs and panic and no one could stop my river bursting its banks. Things were getting smashed and I was powerless to stop it. No one had explained to me what to do when the big winds came, first the tiles lifted clean off the roof and dumped themselves at […]
The Messengers
The sun was trying to get into the house blue at the windows blue at the open door cool flagstones on bare feet as I worked up a sweat on the bread dough the open mouth of the oven as I slipped the loaves inside the cat asleep on the Aga lid the kind of […]
Garden
Trying to make a gardenout of bird branches, nettles, dry grasses,a wooden shed with slatted sides,falling down and into itself. Trying to alive a gardenout of weeds and light through leaves,to grow a garden, to mound a gardenout of sycamore keys and thistle-prickle. Trying to Christmas a garden, to Easter a gardento flap a wing […]
Working From Home
They’re working on that spy plane again; first the scrapy sounds of sanding – on and on it goes, all morning, and now they’re rolling something that sounds like a skateboard along the dining room wall. The sporty one arrives home and starts to unload the camera equipment from the boot of his Fiat Punto […]
This
There is no proof that I exist beyond the mess I’ve made of the house and garden, and a few texts on my mobile phone. I will leave this world lightly – barely a fingerprint will remain. Even children move on – as if all those day in, day outs were only a blink – […]
In the first hospital
your body turned into a cushion, it was the drugs you said and the daily puddings, as if sponge and custard could fix those bothersome brains. The man in the next bed was crying for his mother and there was a woman who kept knocking her head on the wall, come in, she said, come […]
Ten Excuses for Not Phoning
(after Warsan Shire) 1) Because the gaps are bigger than the words either side. 2) Because the surface is so slippery. 3) Because you once said the adverts were more interesting than the programmes. 4) Because I can never be sure you will answer. 5) Because there is always somebody at your door. 6) Because […]