poetry pRO Featured Broadcast Anne Stewart
6 British Poets in Bucharest and Series – bilingual collections

Poets: browse the list

SHOP ONLINE for ppf books & poem cards & more …        MEMBERS’ EVENTS – readings, courses, venues
COMPS & CALLS listed by Members – Aug: Settle Sessions

 

 

donations will be very gratefully received.

latest on site:
   Jean Stevens
   Harriet Torr
   Rosemary McLeish

latest new pages:
   Stephen Boyce
   Lynne Hjelmgaard
   Caroline Natzler
   Nancy Mattson
   Pauline Kirk
   Bill Homewood
   Caroline Carver

Comps & Calls:
Aug:
Settle Sessions

latest comp results:
   Frogmore 2019
   Ware 2019
   Second Light 2018

Poem Cards, books:
   ppf shop online

latest cards:
Anne Stewart (Birthday)
Katherine Gallagher (Anytime)

shop window:
   browse

featured poet, Patricia Bishop (     – 2015)

Child With Liver Damage

I had ‘specialed’ him,
coming in when off duty
with the odd comic, a bar of chocolate.
 
He would lie with his eyes closed
but twitching a little, like a snared rabbit.
His hands soft with disuse.
 
Even his hair slipped away
so each day we’d find brown threads
on the pillow.
 
All this so long ago I forget
his name even. In the end
he could only sip from a feeding spout.
 
When it happened I told the parents.
She had an odd little hat skew-whiff
over her forehead. The knot of his tie
 
too small, too tight, like his hands.
‘Thank you nurse.’ they said
as if I had told them the time.
 

Patricia Bishop

published in Smiths Knoll, Long Pale Corridor, TVW Film, and in translation in Timpul (Romania).

© Copyright of all poems featured on this site remains with the poet
site feedback welcome