Two Poems by Heather D Haigh

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Anna and I Will Be Dragons

Once, we were mice—harvesting petals, berries, and leaves, gathering twigs and spiders, chasing dandelion fairies, running with wind in our hair.
With mud, we made cakes, sprinkled them with dock-seed hundreds-and-thousands
and baked them hard in the midday sun.
Next, we were puppies, jostling and nipping, tumbling and squabbling.
Balls, we had balls, two against ginnel walls.
We were bulldogs—British; we were kiss cats; we were tiggers.
We were chickens running the run.
Then boys made us monkeys.
I'd pluck her, she'd comb me, we'd dye our hair green, nick our shins in the showers,
steal Revlon from Boots, make our bums sway in denim,
blow gum bubbles big as our heads.
But life brought blows, brought fear, brought ruin.
Life brought gorillas with fists,
Brought debts, brought shame, brought bruises.
She slipped away in her shadows. I huddled deep in my shadows.
By moonlight, our tears fell as stones.
But one night I heard, and one night she heard,
our keens twist together like smoke, wisps, curls, plumes.
Each night now, I whisper my promise and listen for her echo.
Our scales grow hard; our wings are budding;
for where there's smoke,
there's fire.

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Beyond the Stratosphere

Do stars sound like the tears of Orpheus?

Did you ever watch the tide slip out and yearn to follow?

Do harbour lights thrum like bodies hot and damp, like the strum of your guitar, like hearts held by a thread between sand and sky, or do they whisper like the kiss of moonlight?

Do you ever sing With Or Without you on a loop, recalling walks along the beach, recalling dances in the foam, recalling moments doing nothing more than being?

Can you taste, tonight, the ocean on your cheeks? 

Do you crash and howl and roar when the churning and chaos come to swallow you? Are you smashed against the cliff face till you drown and drown and drown?

Did you ever cup a starfish in your palm?

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Heather D Haigh is a sight-impaired spoonie and emerging working-class writer from Yorkshire. She is lucky enough to have found a local poetry group and is currently working on developing her poetry. She has had poems published by Dark Winter Lit, The Serulian, and Anansi Archives. At other times she can be found waving her camera about or splashing colour around.