OK, so now I'm high on both Anne Sexton AND sudden thoughts of the possibility of a brief return to Spain when I've completed my course at the end of September... you try and stop me!! :)) K xx

LA VUELTA


“Or perhaps, my darling,
because it is early afternoon,
I will forget that my voice is full of good people,
forget how my legs could sprawl on the terrace,
forget all that the birds might witness,
the torn dress, the shoes lost in the arbour,
while the neighbour’s lawnmower bites and spits out
some new little rows of innocent grass.”

Anne Sexton, “Your Face On The Dog’s Neck”


Because in Spain we were free;
because on holiday it was never “too early” –
or “too late”;

because the terracotta tiles were warm
and bikinis made things easy;

because there were only the mesmerised cattle
and the sound of them tearing parched grass
outside our boundary wall --

perhaps we will leave again
the temperance of this English summer

and return to welcome heat of knowing dust,
speaking words that are our own.