Playtime
‘Can we play?’you ask.
‘I’ll just…’
In a moment
you gently nudge
me and I’m playing
and you’re talking,
sliding into fantasy.
As you take
my side
of our conversation
questioning and answering,
include friends and dolls,
I slip away, unnoticed
‘I’ll just…’
Home time
It’s a gathering,pulling groceries
from retailers, filling
plates with cooked things.
It’s a precise emptying;
sliding from the fridge
and consuming,
rolling up again.
It’s a tension,
money is inflexible;
it is or it isn’t,
supper time always is.
It’s a persuasion
pared away desire
overcoming
yesterday’s filling mind.
It’s a shrug
dancing amongst toys,
spinning away to
the shore.
Anna Chorlton writes poetry, fiction and scripts. She has had poems published in Atlanta Review and Wild Court, London Lit lab blog and performed on Alternative Stories Podcast. She recently hosted the Black Bough-produced Twitter-based poetry series, Top Tweet Tuesday. She is the author of Cornish Folk Tales of Place, and the audio drama, The Silver Ball, produced by Alternative Stories and Fake Realities. Anna is a member of Liskeard Poets. Twitter: anna_chorlton
Banner Art: “Toys” by Robert Frede Kenter (c) 2022. Twitter: @frede_kenter
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