BETH MCDONOUGH

Needled

Those moments we almost know nothing about,
iced-pinkied in blackthorn, trapped between rains.
no moments sung about nothing, we are stung there
iced black between trapped thorn-fingered rains.

Moments before revolutions.
moments between revelations.
Nothing about blackthorn at all,
we know of the black-fingered ice.

Scents that burn in from childhood
in the long stabbed finger which is slow
which is ready to swell through the night
which is tomorrow. Which is sloe. Almost ripe.

Copenhagen, November

Wonder through days and nights which hold
no planets in sight. In this gloom,
change's sudden strangeness arrives
loosely, then is tighter yet. Enigmas form webs.

Swarmed dark, unnoticed until
lights switch and this insect cloud
silences past, a thinning apartness
of uncarapaced heads in their stream

on a near-empty road. Silence flits
across intersections, and these come
untraceable bringers of difference,
harbingers of hope, cycled cities to be

Cycling by Highland cattle with my son

Try to toffee-wrapper this encounter,
twist up the ends, secure the herd,
put the beasts back
somewhere they never were.
Brigadoon them into a childhood

when I didn't have to pedal past
their real broody vastness,

thick with imagined intent.
Nor then did I risk assess potential directions,

headed by their handlebar horns

Not so easy now to scatter fear's matters
of what might happen if my son dismounts,
or starts that coming seizure now.
Just block out thoughts of were he
to run, would they panic, charge? Because

who asks the voiceless what they can't understand?

All this only stampedes through heads. Nothing happens.

Of course. We wheel on, steer past.
They stand, and browse, thrawn. We spin,

chew on whatever never quite happened this time.
 

Beth McDonough is a Dundee-based poet and artist. Her pamphlet Lamping for Pickled Fish is published by 4Word. Currently, she's working on a shared poetry collection with Nikki Robson, and a hybrid project on outdoor swimming. Both books are scheduled for publication fairly soon. She co-hosts Platform Sessions in Fife.

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