Natalie Crick “I have found delight in writing throughout my life and first began to write when I was a very young girl. I am a published poet and my poetry is influenced by melancholic confessional women’s poetry. My poetry has been published in a range of journals and magazines, including Cannons Mouth Journal, The National Poetry Anthology 2013 and Cyphers Magazine.”
A Rainbow: Your Troubles Melt Like Lemon Drops
You sit before me.
Time has been lost
With no gain.
Hours can pass
When you sit by the lake.
A leader amongst men.
Today, I can sit beside you, a curious thing
And count your colours.
They spill over the horizon, dappling
Your forehead with a red sweat.
Shadows, hot violet, well up between us.
A sad sickness flutters inside.
And, now that you are alone.
Somewhere in your eyes a light has gone out.
A moth dies in my arms.
The lake rings out like a glass.
A pool for your thoughts alone.
Your face, it reflects nothing.
Oh, sky above!
Where your fathers, our fathers,
Look down with bald despair.
Let me help you, let me take you by the hand.
You sob into your fists.
No, look away, I ask nothing of you.
Decorating
For only a
Moment
I knew what life meant.
You said you would
Come back to me,
Then you did.
Nightmare: you were once my Valentine.
Blood in my face.
I felt delicate, my dear.
Vertical. My children spread out
Across the ceiling.
They hang up there like flies,
It seems, above my head.
A midnight dreamer, come at me with your blade.
Once upon a time,
There was a young girl
Who slept alone, waiting
For the big, bad wolf.
Our house is a cage.
You hold the key, a hunter of sorts.
I stalked you once
Inside a hall of mirrors.
Lord of mercenaries,
You bound me with ribbons: a present.
And you are outside my window pane
Again and again and
Again and again.
Moans melting into walls
When Granddad’s head
Snaps back, bastard.
Cherry lollipops swaying.
Mad man, I send you to the afterlife.
Oh, Christ! The fields are lush
With mist and purple potatoes.
I grope in beating blood
To see your body turn
Away from us.
Love! Ghosts shout and cry.
I am bored and shy.
Never alone, never alone.
My Body, A Hospital
This is not as I expected.
In this mess, you shall not miss me,
I have decided.
Ready for war,
Such fireworks, they upset me.
Blood falls down.
Oh, how I envy you!
You are always there
As roots cling to Earth.
My Nurse,
With hair and wings.
I pass out and let strangers touch me.
A nest of eggs.
White ovaries crowd inside like pale globes.
I hatch one out: a dirty chick
Crouching yellow in the corner. I catch the drips of
Black blood.
Filthy witch, I am chasing stars.
Bastard. My vagina opens like a wound.
The red sea parts and you run to me.
Wild ghost,
You have found me out!
Fireworks dive through my fingertips.
I will cut your face clean off.
Blame teases your breasts.
My shame is stuck in the air like rape,
Alone with God and
Turned out like a soiled cloth.
I am awful and deaf.
They arrange themselves on sandy beaches.
