Weight, Loss
For DG
Outside work, last summer, a raucous ofneep neep neep, I love U I love U, and the little
bird that mimicked the alarm on the other
side of a metal-barbed security fence.
Tarmac turned tacky underfoot but the office was cool,
my ‘workers’ (we laughed that they just ‘attend’)
returned to base and over tea and biscuits were debating
their goals – one wanted a loss of two, the other four or more.
They waddled across worn-through linoleum
like wood pigeons; confabbing about
this week’s Slimming World recipe–the one
made with brown or orange sugar-free pop.
‘Effin disgustin’ said Davy, dry heaving
at the very thought of it. This winter, he listened
to the beep, beep, beep of the ECG. Flatlined
the week after his sixty-fourth birthday.
Gaynor Kane is from Northern Ireland. She came to writing late, after finishing a degree with a creative writing module. Her full collection, ‘Venus in Pink Marble’ was released on her 50th birthday in 2020, published by the Hedgehog Poetry Press. She has three other publications, from that press: a micro collection, ‘Circling the Sun’ (2018), about the early aviatrixes, a chapbook, ‘Memory Forest’ (2019), about burial rituals and last wishes, and a co-authored chapbook of pandemic poetry ‘Penned In’(2020).Her forthcoming chapbook of love poems ‘Eight Types of Love’ is due to be published in February 2022. Her poems have earned places in several competitions. She has been guest editor of the Bangor Literary journal and has also performed at several festivals, including the Belfast Book Festival, Stendhal Music and Arts Festival and Cheltenham Poetry Festival. Social media: Website: www.gaynorkane.com. Twitter: @gaynorkane. Facebook: @gaynorkanepoet. Instagram: @gaynorkanepoet.
Banner Image: Highstreet, w/text from “Weight, Loss, a poem by Gaynor Kane”. A VISPO by Robert Frede Kenter (c) 2022. Twitter: @frede_kenter.
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