(meno)pausing at the duckpond
gree-ee-ee-ee-ee-een stiletto-slim pins,
slinky reeds stick-thin as a heron’s legs,
they waver like knife-blades from slits
in the water, dangerously lovely
but the pond is foul: brackish, thick-
surfaced, edges clogged with black crud
like stopped blood, with duck-shit, with a duck
long past laying eggs – fat but dead,
and me, puffy-ankled and stinking,
my bra soaked, while those minxes poke
at the sky, tall as they can, pricking at
anything scudding by till something pops.
BIO
Sue’s latest publication is of translated poetry: TWENTY POEMS BY KATHRIN SCHMIDT,
Arc Publications, 2020. She has published five poetry and four prose publications and had work
in The Guardian,Poetry Review, Stockholm Review, Stand, Rialto, Los Angeles Review,
Trafika Europe, Lunch Ticket. She edits for Naked Eye Publishing (UK)
Recent Posts
See AllWe met I giggled You were serious I felt your heart even then Our souls said hello again Here we go A lifetime would pass 33 years to be exact And still And still As you lay there in your last hours I
Me: Dear Stress, thank you for being such a big part of my life for most of my life. You have helped me to know in my body what feels right and wrong, what feels safe or scary, what I want to do or no
But who wouldn’t want to look that good in mismatched bra and panties? She’s not looking in the mirror she holds. Lying on loose sheets, little rhetorical mouth a little open. She’s waiting for her hu