Tinnitus: May, low skies and thunder
Rough music in the lane,
the love child lapped in blood
and safe at her breast, the pain
echoed in wood on wood,
steel on steel, as they come,
the women in their blacks,
to hound her from house and home,
bands of bitches and claques
of crones with their pots and pans,
their hooks and ladles and bowls,
to beat outside in the street,
to stand at her window and howl,
while the child takes a taste of green
milk and “the dead of night”
is all she has of her own
and the music goes on and on.
Copyright Credit: This poem was published in Fire Song (Faber and Faber, 2014).
Source: Poetry (October 2014)