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