LEAH VICKERY

Commended - 2024 Tower Poetry Competition, 'Mirror'

 

Jej Twarz

When I look at her red face 

her hazelnut hair 

her peach mouth 

I think 

 

she must know all of it. 

Where the first flower grew 

where the first nomad settled 

where the first catfish floundered 

 

sun-speckled in the spring light, 

can she see me? 

I wonder 

do her pupils grow thick as sunflowers 

 

when I sit with the reeds? 

Was she afraid when the first built 

great houses of sticks and mud 

on her back? 

 

When they cut the owlish trees 

that she loved so much 

stump and all 

from her sun-speckled skin. 

 

My currant eyes widen 

large as sunflowers 

when I cross far-reaching seas 

and find her there, 

 

she would not. Could not leave me 

nor I her, 

and as I stare at her darkening 

as the sun sets. My eyes 

two sunflowers, 

 

I see the shade of my hair in hers. 

 

It's beautiful, isn't it, she said. 

Yes