Introduction Foreword Writing Together Coping Within The System Coping On My Own Coping With Teenagers Coping With Relationships Live Performance

Caroline Brereton

Awakening

Lit up on the top deck
Of the number 7
Your dark profile
En-silhouette
Slowly draws away:
Another moonlit mission
To score.
My anger bursts at
Gaping holes in
Carpets
Rips in
Bed sheets
My heart
Flutters
Fearing
Basement squalor.
Footsteps return
Crinkle of rizzla
Nose prickles
Pillows wrenched.
You were a beautiful man before
The stink that destroyed you
The skunk odour's curse
Suspended on the wind
The day my patience burst.

So I ran off with a mental health social worker... That was cool!

 

The next poem is about being depressed in the spring in St Anne's Well Gardens.

Aftershock

Smooth procession of buggies
In an airless park
Newborn wailing
Induces raw puke

Grannies' proud wiggle
Dads' triangle stance.
Husband I should have chosen
Sensible shoes
"Marry a man with a briefcase dear''.
Brand new baby
While my blood trickles
Spring growth heaving
My hopes thinning
Today I sense
Scratched trees
Catlike piercings
Proud the family group
Sharp screams
Micra-hope.


 

'This poem is about my ex-husband.'