Sunday 12 December 2010

John quickens


Not the joy of expected births but from the very start the sort of terror at what is to come which provoked the angel’s ‘do not be afraid’, caught in Sally Read’s Mafia Flowers which is about the victim who has received his named funeral wreaths and reacts

... as if 14-year-old Mary had gone running
to Elizabeth, broad-sided by her elaborate tale, saying
it was nothing of her idea and she’d soon forget it.

Too late. Already the gold congeals about her head,
and Elizabeth eyeing her warily, her flesh
and blood womb leaping in fear...

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