Poetry - Lynn White

Barcelona Sandals Standing in the Andorra snow shivering in our Barcelona sandals. Glad of a lift down to Foix as darkness was falling. And the driver knew a hotel, Hotel du Centre. Very grand and full of people looking down long noses. But the driver knew the owner who was a kind man, a nice man. So we shouldn't worry   about the cost, he said. A lovely room and in the morning, breakfast! We must eat the owner said. Warm bread and jam. Coffee with hot milk which tasted sour. But I don't like the taste of milk, anyway, so most likely it was sweet. And then the bill. But there was no bill. Save it for the journey, the owner said. A kind man, a nice man, who believed the driver's story, whatever it was. A few years later,   we returned to Foix and went to find  Hotel du Centre. But it wasn't there. No one knew it. It didn't exist. Did it ever exist? Did any of it happen? Or did we somehow share a memory   from our   imaginations. https://fragmentedmagazine.com/pro...

  A Grey Place? This is a grey place,   there's no denying. Grey slate, grey granite, grey houses built of both. And it rains a lot, there's no denying. Vertical, or horizontal, or swirling rain falling greyly from heavy misty clouds. But when caught by a sunbeam it makes glistening slides   shimmering across the slate   and falls in bright white tails   or snakes like silver where the mountains leak it. And spills heavily over rocks, it's foaming, frothing, yellow ruffed   cascades catching rainbows as they crash then spitting them back out   in a fine spray of colours. And now there's no grey   in the dark blue, black sky   filled with gold and silver twinkles. No grey at all in this place now, there's no denying. https://fragmentedmagazine.com/projects/

The Potato Eaters The harvest looks good today un-blighted so we know that we shall eat   this winter and there should be enough to pay the landlord and put a roof over our heads this winter. So we will kneel and say a prayer that he will not ask too much. https://www.trouvaillereview.org/home/the-potato-eaters-by-lynn-white

  Lotus If in the afternoon I come upon a land and find the lotus blooming there, Will I recognise it’s flowers and fruits,   I wonder. Will I remember it’s story, I wonder. And in the evening,   after sniffing the fragrance of the flowers and tasting the fruit, will I have forgotten to wonder. https://payhip.com/b/gP1d

  Remembrance If I come across a pool of still water and find the lotus blooming there in the afternoon, I shall scatter rosemary on the surface so that I don’t forget to remember me. https://payhip.com/b/gP1d

  Then She’s standing still  pale as England,  slim and serious as I stood  then. Hair chopped  above her shoulders with a little curl allowed as mine was  then. A little curl allowed, in memory of it’s ringlets earlier than then. Then it grew longer  and we pulled it straight. So now, it’s more like it was  before then. Before then,  when it was longer still, and ironed straight under thick brown paper. It had been shorter still before then it’s feminine length curtailed, but with a little curl allowed, a reminder of it’s ringlets earlier than then. Of it’s earlier hated ringlets grown  from loose curls. Ringlets cut  when  father died. Not until then. https://ephemeralelegies.com/2020/12/02/then-by-lynn-white/

  Doll My little princess. My china doll with your peachy skin and golden hair. In pink frills I dressed you up, combed you and curled you. Made you into my special pet, my little angel, to be loved and cherished. My creation. My little girl. But all the time you were making up yourself, getting ready to smash the porcelain, and break out to become the creation you had already made up even before you painted and inked your pearly skin, combed your hair straight, and gelled it into jagged spikes with a pink splash. Shockingly, piercing the past, you broke out into your future. For you were never a princess, never a doll, and most of all, little girl, you were never mine, never mine to mould. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rebloom-Anthology-Resilience-Nikki-Marrone/dp/099569933X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1606817363&sr=8-1