Author’s foreword: I enjoy writing poetry and stories about complicated, difficult relationships. This small collection of poems shares the perspective of two people trying to survive a tumultuous relationship, as they navigate unspoken pasts and unshared secrets.

introit

The smell of daisies on your breath

and warm silence on my chest,

I paused in laughter.

The tip-toed dreams not kept safe,

shelved among the rubble,

leave me untethered.

You turn seconds into hours,

violence into minutes,

and I breathe at your desire.

There is no virtue in patience.

I’ve learnt to wait no longer

than the time I chose to waste.

session #1

The silence tripped up wires in our house,

like unkempt hair in summer heat

sweat caught in heavy eyelids,

pauses lingered stale.

I begged you close the door to hide those missing days.

I held your hand in concrete rooms when strangers made you speak.

Sepia shaded children and dusty bikes.

Names forgotten and roads unmarked.

Your finger slides along the edge of my palm.

You sigh as if there had ever been room for forgiveness.

session #2

If I can’t wear pain on my lips,

where can I wear it?

If I can’t feed you words of violence,

where can I leave them?

For you I can’t unravel time.

The moment passed without merit,

I can only give you

lies in the darkened sea,

ageing waves to drown our motion,

feelings of exhausted youth.

Where do you see the sun rising?

I caught a glimpse of dawn once.

session #3

The charred bones of our house are all that remains

on fields unflowered

blossomed days we can no longer have.

The children scattered the ashes,

buried the rest.

Sarah is currently a PhD student in Linguistics at Cambridge. She has most recently authored a libretto (The Trouble with Ire) to be set to music by Cambridge student Daniel Quigley and published a short story in Hypaethral Magazine. She holds a BA (Hons) in Linguistics and Phonetics from the University of Leeds and a combined MSc in Educational Neuroscience from University College London and Birkbeck College.