Fall/Winter 2015-2016



Catherine Ayres

CURLEWS AT NIGHT

I find a foothold before the huge slab hits,
hoist myself up, foam spurring bare heels.
For a moment, I’m lost in a murmuration of spume,
chalked hands pale through the wave’s ghost.
I thread the headland path with careful steps,
a silent speck trembling through the sea’s white hiss.
Somehow I hear them, bubbling under
the seagulls’ prehistoric shrieks.
Their strange sonar pulls me to another place:
the crackle of moorland brown with sun,
a farmhouse roof that slants in every dream.
I wake thirsty, drenched in salt;
drain their echoes from an empty glass.


Catherine Ayres lives and works in Northumberland. She has a pamphlet published by Black Light Engine Room coming out in September and a collection – Amazon – to be published by Indigo Dreams next year.

 


 

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