Now I remember why the top of my head hurts Sleep won’t come, but for a moment When my fingers are allowed to touch The bottom of the pond And a little sand and grit Gets underneath my nails And my body starts to settle - Then you pull me up Fists in my seaweed hair Jolted awake, without respite In my weary bones
A Little Gin in Your Secret Garden
Things are never as they seem A little gin in your secret garden Soil and sun and dried black roses An accent because I’ve been practicing Scrub the stains off your shirt But never mind, I don’t mind if I do That was honest
Because You Kissed Me in the Dark
Because you kissed me in the dark And with my eyes closed (Closed because you asked me, For a moment, To close them) That kiss does not exist.
And because you held my hand In another room We do not talk about it. It’s as though it never happened, Because it happened somewhere else, And that was not a metaphor
Bio: Poems previously published in the book Pomegranate Heart by Miriam Calleja