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eBook - ePub
Call and Response
About this book
Call and Response is a sequence of sonnets from the perspective of a daughter, addressed to her mother during her mother's illness. Hard-edged yet tender, the poems explore the darker side of familial bonds and the strange ways suffering can heal old wounds.
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Yes, you can access Call and Response by Rachel Spence,Emma Dai'an Wright in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & European Poetry. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
January 2013.
Commercial Street. Traffic fumes cauterising
the day to twilight. I’m between a broken
boiler and a visa application for a country
I can’t afford to visit. Your voice like stale
water dammed too long. You didn’t come
for Christmas and now the neighbours think
we are estranged. I’m done, Mum, really, done.
My phone sliding into the ninth circle
of misunderstood daughters. The queue
for visas Bablyonian – so many different faces.
All with mothers! And once again you’re
buzzing at my hip. Darling, how’s your boiler?
And once again, we’re on.
March. My lover’s kiss has framed my day
with light. Spring’s diligent percussion
greening the tree outside my window.
The words flow freely, stitching me
into the morning’s warp and weft. I’ve never
told you, have I, that sometimes when I write
it feels like letting blood. What haven’t you
told me? What have we never asked?
Not now, Mum. But your voice is different.
Old-lady fear fluttering like a baby bird’s.
You waited how long before going to a doctor?
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul
that not your madness but my trespass speaks.
The day no longer numinous. But we’re still on.
April. The relief of finding you perched
on your hospital bed. Lipsticked and cashmered.
Defiantly undimmed. Twelve hours post-op,
you’ve drunk them out of tea and think you’d like
to go now. Nurses calling you the Steve Redgrave
of patients. Your healing seeded centuries
ago, tough as the ash trees fighting
their way through frost-bitten Polish soil,
hunger for a better life incubating
in clogged, shtetl light. And yes, I’m proud to ...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Other Books From The Emma Press
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Prequel
- Call and Response
- Sequel
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- About The Poet
- The Emma Press