after Kait Quinn

My marbles, my mind, my temper

when I was just five and the world

kept turning in spite of my stubborn

hands and feet trying to scale the stars.

 

Breadcrumbs and balls of string;

every attempt to find my way

back home again; to savour the word again

as it slips and falls like me

 

on ice skates – any sense of integrity,

fear rippling through tight, ripped jeans,

cold breath on the wind and you,

skating out into the far distance

 

away from me. I lost our ten year

anniversary, but I didn’t regret it.

All the things we called ours too

except the cat which purrs my name.

 

The name I’ve forgotten too often,

the one which has lingered by railways,

submerged itself, eyes, nose, mouth

into the bath. The one I sometimes wish

 

could vanish so I no longer know

the sound of it when it passes someone’s lips.

But amongst the marbles and madness,

the five year old with a heart that aches,

 

I found it. The name I’ll write

poems about until it is lit wild and loved

with Endymion in the stars. 

 

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Poem: © Kristiana Reed 2020

My poetry collections:

Flowers on the Wall UK

Flowers on the Wall US

Between the Trees UK

Between the Trees US

https://linktr.ee/KristianaReed