As you may see from my word usage, this has been totally inspired by a combination of AJT's remarkable poem, One Thousand Women, and the response made to it by Anessa's powerful mind and pen. So... into the melting pot this goes! Thanks, you two! :)) K xx

WINTER TREE


She is Atlas,
map-etched bark
of her saturnine trunk
straining upwards,
dividing bony-fingered
to cradle knuckles of planets
and gemstone rings of stars.

Stripped cleaner than a soul,
she’s all angles and curves:
sin-purged hollows and
spirit-filled mounds.

Day’s shadow collects
in bowls of her arms;
light darts from taut boughs
or filters through knots
of her sweat-tousled hair.

Birds roost in her heaving ribcage,
syphoning air and
spilling out song

as twilight reclothes her
(skeletal, transparent)
in skin – colour of fruit’s
weathered bruise and blemish.