Your Child
You, barely beyond childhood yourself,
with peachy, unlined skin,
delighted with the plump baby in your lap;
teaching him about the scent of flowers,
conversation, play; he,
alert to your every expression.
Prophesies cannot prepare you.
After the lynching, you cradle dead weight
and remember moments like these.
Lesley Burt’s poetry has been published online and in journals such as ‘Tears in the Fence’, ‘The Interpreter’s House’, ‘Sarasvati’, and anthologies compiled by Hurricane Press and Cinnamon Press. She is currently beginning an MA in Creative Writing as a distance learner at Lancaster University. One of her interests in writing is exploring ways in which imagery in poetry relates to images in the visual arts.
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