Lisa Kelly #quirkychristmas

Copenhagen Christmas

The walking lanes, the city’s veins,
are strung with red and white hearts.

Yule Nisse in aprons and gloves,
carry silverware from Georg Jensen,

Bodum coffee cups, boxes of pastries,
wrapped bunches of Marguerites.

The Little Mermaid waits, as temporal
as sea foam, for the miracle of renewal,

while Tivoli whirls, a carousel of lights,
and Hans Christian Andersen,

a relation, on my mother’s side,
by imagination only,

sings Wonderful Copenhagen,
in a voice like Danny Kaye’s.

I sailed up the Skagerrak,
And sailed down the Kattergat
Through the harbour and up to the quay
And there she stands waiting for me.

Lisa Kelly is a half Danish, half deaf freelance journalist specialising in technology. Her pamphlet Bloodhound is published by Hearing Eye. She is a regular host of poetry events at the Torriano Meeting House in London and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. She is on the board of Magma, and co-edited Magma 63.