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Mary MacRae’s second collection
published Aug 10 by Second Light Publications. See order form (pdf file) for discount offers
‘Opposite her was a window luminous and cool as aquarium glass
and warped as water ’
Marilynne Robinson
The childhood window
new light pouring in, a white rat
running the drain pipe.
A veranda glassed, stuffy
jammed with boots and bikes, ill-fitting windows
vaulting the room into yellow.
The narrow window in that first house, jerked
open, the crumbly lilac giving off
its sweet cool thread.
Night, the children sleeping – a window cracked
for air, your face
pressed against the cold glass.
Found windows, framing roof tops chimneys
their intricate arrangement
of levels and slopes.
A room with a wall of glass, its interplay
of green and steady north light
swapped with black.
Windows scored with rain.
The brutal slots in castle walls.
Light’s geometry.
Poem first published in Agenda 2014;
in collection The Plate Spinner, 2017, Oversteps Books
