Today’s response poem is from Claire Walker and is based on artwork from Claire Trevien. You can read the full interview HERE
The artwork “is based on a photo I took a few years ago inside a Bed & Breakfast on the Isle of Wight. It was run very eccentrically by a couple who were obviously navigating a tense marriage. I loved the headboards enough to photograph them, they were wonderfully kitsch”.
Turning my back on Spring
She was made in the softness of goose down, with love
already floating around the shell of this bed.
There was safety in it, this love that knew nothing
but growth – buds forming then opening
like the cherry tree that blossomed across the wall
while I lay pale through first trimester days.
Such soft pink hope.
I imagined her the same:
the pads of her feet growing, brushing the roof of my stomach
as she eased into her limbs under cover.
I’d known nothing but love until petalled branches fell,
have grown to hate the paper that is always in bloom.
Abegail Morley 