Chad Valley Tin Globe, 1953 – A Poem by Kittie Belltree

Chad Valley Tin Globe, 1953

those years we lived
            at the edge of the world
wearing a voice cracked with gravity
            while all the words
that once pointed the way
            a head slipped backwards
into the sea   my
            dented stillbirth
phantastic association of water and earth
            your hollowness
the opposite of empty
            marriage of cock-eyed
hemispheres   squatting
            the quiet latitude
of mantel shelf   you tilt
            the four seasons   nail down
the scars of empire  orbits
            of loss and eviction
the whole idea
            of your existence   as rust
circumnavigates your rutted
            continents   your tarnished oceans
imprints of imperfection   the axis
            of reason   to remain

Kittie Belltree’s debut poetry collection Sliced Tongue and Pearl Cufflinks is published by Parthian (2019). Her poems, short fiction and reviews have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including The Morning Star, Planet, The Brown Envelop Book (Caparisan, 2020), Cast a Long Shadow (Honno, 2022), Heartland (Parthian, 2019) and Cut on The Bias (Honno, 2010). She has just completed her first novel. Kittie lives in Wales and when not writing, she works as works as a Specialist Tutor for neurodivergent students at Aberystwyth University and delivers collaborative creative learning and wellbeing projects in her community with organizations including Literature Wales, Arts Council Wales and Disability Arts Cymru. Twitter: @KittieBelltree

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