Queen’s Cup
by and published in Edition Seven of Pomegranate
It’s a familiar cave, this one. Green light
leans on the rock, mineral and mushroom
pale. I know the air outside (red and sweet) – but here, I found a fire, bitterly crooning
to itself in the hollow of my hands.
Look, there are lilies under my skin, wrapped
wetly around my bones (stay until I am
ready to speak; stay until you cannot see).
Tonight, at the bar, you were there: a softer
thumbprint of soot; smoke under the electric
filament; smudging the room violet. Glancing
at me. I slipped out to the fold of the street:
the white petals, like fists, had bloomed. And I
was trying to find the loveless, unloving moon.
Annabella Massey
Annabella Massey was one of the commended poets for the 2006 Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, and on the final shortlist for the Christopher Tower Poetry Competition 2007. She has poems forthcoming in the next Tower Poetry anthology. She is twenty-one years old, and currently in her second year reading English Literature and Creative Writing at Warwick University.