after Emily Blewitt

This is not a rescue.

This one will sting like bees and pomegranate seeds;

Persephone, oval eyes turned upwards to the darkness beading the sky.

This is the beginning of the end, the fall into something new.

 

This is you – tobacco and loose lips,

my hips and buttercups.

This is not a rescue but sinking, slipping peacefully into blue,

into sadness written across knuckles or wishes found behind ears

like a cheap magician’s coin;

 

this is everything I have ever wanted.

Drowning but I’m living, swimming – butterfly full of grace

and I want to fly with you.

This is not a rescue.

 

It is the sea, the firmament, the grave already dug

and lined with poppies,

it is a forever which tastes so much like the here and now.

This is not a rescue.

 

This is you – bonfire smoke swept pretty

across a pink and purple sky. 

 

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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