Talisman, a poetry by Jenny Middleton at Spillwords.com

Talisman

Talisman

written by: Jenny Middleton

 

We strung the paradise of those days
together as if they were shark’s teeth
threaded onto a leather lace
to be worn as a talisman forbidding tomorrow’s bite.

Each tooth having already eaten all other
shy, creeping terrors, before its own fall
from a blooded jaw to the quietness of a fossil
amongst a cathedral of cavernous bones
waiting to be plucked.

Now rooms are bare of that glory – hollowed
and we feel as skeletal as those displays
hanging in galleries where they sell,
for a few pounds, pendants
like the one we made all those years ago.

The new light ghosted with shadows slipping
between youth and the spill of age,
as if time was a toy spun carelessly in a Zoetrope,
then stilled again to individual images
that perhaps we can still hold.

Jenny Middleton

Jenny Middleton

Jenny Middleton's poems have been published in various printed anthologies and online sites. Jenny studied English Literature and Drama at university and went on to study a postgraduate degree in education to qualify as a teacher; she is now a working mum. Her poems are often drawn from real experiences or inspired by artwork.
Jenny Middleton

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