‘The Visited’ by Peter Sirr from his new Poetry Book Society Recommended collection The Gravity Wave is our August Poem of the Month
The Visited
Someone else is here now
not me
not anyone I know
someone stiff-spirited
and unfree
ghost of a girl forgotten
some child’s child wandered
from the path, poor
stray foostered and fumbled
set loose in these eyes staring
beyond you
you
who do not belong to me
who come crowding into the room
with someone else’s story in your arms
who is it
you look at?
Who owns these
broken bones?
A strange light slopes in from the fields
but doesn’t find me
forget your flowers, forget
everything you brought
look for
the story in me
heaped and tumbled
the torn child
known once, the mist girl
missed swirl
skittering at the room’s edge
take her by the hand
urge her to the centre
let the room be lit by her
and listen.
by Peter Sirr
from The Gravity Wave (2019)
